Tales of Symphonia: The LK9 Project
by reithedragonboy
Summary: This is a story that I made up a month ago while continuously listening to the song "Almateria". It's a different take on how the main story was played. *Currently on hold.*
1. Prologue

Hello, my fellow readers. Yes, this is a new story that I am writing. I feel that I need to take a new fresh path before I continue on with my other story. Don't worry, that one is definitely not dead. Anyway, this is a story that I have been thinking up for almost a couple of weeks now. I hope you like the prologue to my story Tales of Symphonia: The LK-9 Project. Please read and review!

I do not own any of the characters from Tales of Symphonia. They all belong to NAMCO.

* * *

******Prologue**

"Why don't you two just go ahead and give it up already?" a man with short graying hair and pointy ears who was holding a heavy metal staff in his hand suggested with a sigh at two people, a man and a woman, whose backs were to an edge of a cliff. "I have you cornered like the little sneaky rats that you are. You've nowhere else to run now."

"Do you honestly think that we would just give up because you told us to?" the auburn haired man with his back behind the cliff asked in what one could consider an overconfident tone when put into consideration the circumstances as he tightened his grip on the sword he had drawn out. "You must think really small about us, especially me considering the fact about who I am."

"Who you are bears no weight as to why I'm here nor are they the judge of my actions," the man with the staff replied as the two people that were behind them readied themselves for an attack. "All that matters to me is what you have in your possession. Now, how about you return to me what is rightfully mine? If you do so, then I just might consider sparing your lives."

"I don't think you have much choice in the matter except to spare our lives," the man who was standing protectively next to the woman said. "I may not be in league with the organization anymore, but I'm sure he still wants me to come back into it and wouldn't want you to go killing me. That and while I still draw breath, I won't let you lay a finger on my wife. Besides, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Feigning ignorance won't help you here," the man said with a snarl as he outstretched his hand towards the pair and left his palm open. "You know perfectly well what I am talking about. I want the results of my unfinished research handed back to me. I want the pitiful human woman that you seem to cherish so back into my possession. To be more precise, I want the developing Cruxis Crystal that has been manifesting off of her hospitable body. It is a very valuable piece of my research and I would like the fruits of my labor transferred back into my hands. Refusal is not an option for I would simply obtain it by any means necessary."

"I will never go back to that Human Ranch!" the woman, who had long black hair and was quiet for most of the time and was carrying a small bundle in her hands, exclaimed. "I will not allow you to continue your experiment on my body anymore!"

"Yet I'm afraid you do not have much say in the matter, you filthy human," the pursuer replied calmly. "After all, you cannot remove the incomplete Crystal without wearing the proper charm around it, which, I might add, you do not have. I'm sure you both know full well what might happen if that were to be removed."

"Yet if you do not have me under your constant watch, you can't continue on with your research, thus putting all of your work in a stand-still," she countered as she began to cradle the bundle in her arms that had started to cry."You won't be able to figure out how the process works. As long as I can hinder you from figuring it out, I would be more than happy even if I can't take it off and it continues to grow off of me."

"That may be true, but there is one thing that you have yet to know. I do not need to have you as the crystal's sole host. With the right procedure, I can just transfer it onto another compatible host. Why, I have a right mind to just kill you here right now and take your child as a substitute for it. After all, you are the mother of the child and it would be more than suitable for my research."

"You will never lay a hand on my son!" the man with the sword exclaimed angrily as he moved himself into a position that would better protect both his wife and child. "Your research is a direct violation of his orders! I'm surprised that you haven't been taken out of his forces yet."

"That's because I have managed to stay on his good side for so long. Now, enough of this idle banter. Are you or are you not going to hand me that girl quietly? It will be so much easier on all of us if you would do just that. Why, I would even let you keep your son if you would only hand her to me. I really would like to keep this as clean as possible."

"Well, you can forget about keeping things clean. You better get yourself ready because you'll be getting dirty very soon. Noishe, now!"

Suddenly, a big green and white blur passed between the two groups. Within an instant, it appeared behind the opposing group and did away with the two men behind the leader.

"What the…!" the leader exclaimed as he turned around in an attempt to see what was going on. "What's going on here?!"

Before he could even fully comprehend the defeat of his two elite men, the blur made a mad dash towards him. With lightning-quick reflexes, he managed to bring his staff in front of him as a defensive front before it could have made contact with him, but only barely. Seeing that it had unsuccessfully hit it's mark, the blur quickly closed the gap between the couple and the opponent.

"Hah," the man scoffed as he brought his staff arm to his side. "A surprise for me, huh? Then I guess you should consider _my_ surprise as compensation."

"What are you talking about?" the swordsman inquired with a cocked eyebrow while keeping his sword trained at his enemy.

"Oh, you haven't noticed? But I am sure the lovely woman beside you knows what I am talking about. Isn't that right, my dear?"

"Wh-what is he talking about?" the man stuttered as he turned around to see what he meant by addressing the mother of his son. "What did he do to… Ah!"

As if to answer his question, he saw the woman tremble violently as if there was a brutal arctic wind blowing in the area. However, he did not have to think hard to figure out why she was acting like this. What once used to be around her beautiful neck was suddenly gone. But he could have sworn that it was still there before he told Noishe to attack.

"Wh-where… H-h-how did… When…!" the man stuttered as he quickly took hold of his son that was still in the woman's now violently quivering arms.

"Surprised, aren't you?" the pursuer said with an evil smirk as he tossed a shiny object within his hands. "It's amazing what you can do with just a little bit of magic and applying it at the right time. It's a terrible shame, though, that I have to rip it off of one of the most compatible hosts I've ever seen. Humans like her hardly ever make themselves known. Ah well, what's done is done."

Figuring out that his enemy had the item in question, the man quickly put his son on Noishe's back and turned to face his enemy who had what his wife had on only moments ago.

"Give me back that Cruxis Crystal!" the man demanded as his voice was on the border between anger and desperateness.

"Actually, I made a small miscalculation," the pursuer replied calmly as if nothing was happening. "I thought that this had already developed into a successful Cruxis Crystal. It appears that I was wrong. It's still in the Exsphere stage. It requires more maturation."

"Just give me back that darn thing!" the swordsman practically shouted.

"It's just as I thought," the man continued on as if the demand was never voiced. "It went into permanent dormant stage because of being ripped off so suddenly. Oh well, nothing a little Mana surge back at the ranch can't fix."

"Enough with this!" the man shouted so loudly that even Noishe started to inch away from his master. "Just give me back the darn thing!"

"Are you still here yelling at me? Don't you think it's about time that you diverted your attention to something else? I would be that last thing on your mind about now. To be more precise, shouldn't you be keeping your focus on the human next to you?"

Just then, a terrible and monstrous sound echoed throughout the area they were in. Turning around to the same sound that was just behind him, the swordsman was shocked at what laid before him. What once used to be a beautiful woman that was holding their son only moments ago was now a hideous monster that looked to be seriously deformed with very long arms and scaly, almost flaky-like, reptile-ish skin.

"Anna, no!" the man shouted in surprise as he saw what his wife had turned into. "Don't turn into such a creature! Not now! Try to hang on until I get the crystal back from this monster!"

"Who exactly are you calling a monster, my dear Seraphim?" the man with the pole asked with mocked hurt. "You know as well as I who's the real monster here. Besides, I would expect you of all people to know what would happen once something like this is taken from a human's body that lacked the proper charm to bind its power. Its host turns into one of these poor creatures."

"I don't care!" the swordsman shouted angrily as Noishe, who had already put the baby on his back onto the ground, slowly walked up to the creature that was once Anna. "Just give me back the crystal so I can restore my wife!"

"Are you truly demanding me of something that you already know the answer to? If so, then you must be truly desperate to save her life. Ha, ha, allow me to kindly burst the bubble. Your wife…is dead! There's nothing you can do to save her now. Even if you did manage to retrieve this back from me, it would do you no good for it is already too late."

"If that's the case, then I'll rob you of _your_ life as compensation for Anna's!"

Before he could even make good on his threat, though, the monster that was behind him took a mighty swipe at his ribs. With such force applied to the blow, it was a wonder that there was not a sickening crack echoing throughout the area. However, it was so strong and sudden that it practically sent the swordsman flying a good yard or so away.

"You may be a very old human, but you still look and act like an impulsive young man," the man with the pole sighed. "No matter. I've got what I came here for. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll allow you and your faithful pet to play with your monstrosity of a wife while I take your only child from under your nose. After all, he is the child of the host who was compatible to this wonderful experiment, and I think that he would be a perfect fit, just like his mother."

"You…stay away…from my son!" the wounded man breathed out as he struggled to get back onto his feet. "Don't you dare…lay a finger…on Lloyd!"

"Oh, so that's the little mongrel's name, isn't it? It's got a nice ring to it. I'll be sure to make a note of it. Moving on to more pressing matters, I don't think you have much say in whether or not I can take your son. You are in no position to have a say in it. You can hardly even stand on your own two feet. Now, let's see if this boy is compatible with this Exsphere."

"NO!" the auburn haired man exclaimed as he made a futile attempt to lunge at the man. "DON'T!"

At this, Noishe tried to jump at the man in his master's stead, but was stopped by the monster's long arms and thrown to the side.

"Humph, a pitiful attempt," he said as he tried to attach the stone on the young boy, but failed to do so. "Well, that's interesting. I was sure he would be a compatible host for my little experiment. It appears I was wrong. It seems I have no need for your child after all."

"Then…put him down," the swordsman said as he finally managed to get onto his feet. "Give him back to me!"

"Oh, I'm afraid I can't do that," the man holding Lloyd exclaimed as if he had just remembered something. "You see, I still have another experiment that I have been working on. It's been going on for even longer than this one has. I've started work on it three centuries ago. I believe that this boy would be the perfect candidate, wouldn't you say so?"

"I said…, give me back my son!"

"Oh, don't worry about him. I'll take good care of him. After all, it seems like he'll be in my care for the rest of his life."

"N-No!"

"And just as a small sign of respect to you as a Seraphim, who are of higher stature than me, I shall impart to your son his true name once he is old enough. Whether he remembers it or not matters not to me."

"Y-you…!" the man panicked as he struggled to close the wide gap between himself and the man who was threatening to take his only son away from him. "Please, don't take him!"

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I must be going now. I've got to get to work on my project that has been three centuries in the making. Take one last look at your son, for this will be the last time you will ever see him. Now you two go on ahead and play with your wife, or what's left of her. Ha, ha, ha!"

And with that, the gray haired man quickly ran away from the cliff with the child in tow. As he was doing this, he had on the most evil smile one could ever imagine. He continued to smile in this fashion even as the man was crying out for him to give his son back.

"NO!" the shouts of the distraught father echoed throughout the area as the monster advanced towards him. "Give me back my son, you monster! Give him back to me! Lloyd! Don't you dare die until I find you! I swear I'll find you! Lloyd!!!"


	2. Just Another Typical Day at School

**Chapter 1: Just Another Typical Day**

"Lloyd!"

"Just give me a couple of more minutes," a sleeping boy murmured as he kept his head planted on his arms with a couple of books under them which were resting on a wooden table. "I'll be up in a jiffy."

Around the room, a few snickers were heard as a woman in the front of the room grew visibly irritated. Deciding to call to the boy again, she walked up to where he was sitting, or sleeping, however you want to look at it.

"No, Lloyd. You will wake up _now_!" the woman sternly demanded as she was now hovering over the boy. "This is no time to be sleeping in class."

Instead of an answer this time, the woman, who was presumably a teacher trying to teach her class, only got a small snore from her sleeping student. This succeeded in making the woman even more irritated.

"I don't think Lloyd's going to be waking up anytime soon, Professor Sage," a small boy, who had silver hair that was close to his shoulders, pointed ears that hid behind his hair, and was wearing blue with white stripes shirt and shorts, replied with a sigh while rolling his sky blue eyes at his sleeping classmate. "He's practically like a rock when he's like this."

"Then I suppose that I will have to resort to the method that I always use when he's asleep," the professor, who also had silver hair about the same length as the boy's and had the same pointed ears hiding behind her hair, sighed as she quickly strode back to her previous position in front of the blackboard while fixing the wrinkles in her formal orange tailcoat shirt. "It seems as though that's the only way to wake him up from his sleep. Honestly, though," she added quietly to herself, "how can he sleep so deeply during the middle of school in the middle of the day? I don't think that Dirk would actually keep him up so late that he would be this sleepy."

Making good on her words heard by the entire class, she picked up a piece of blackboard chalk with her two fingers and turned to face the class; more precisely, she was facing her sleeping student, Lloyd. Then, with great swiftness from the experiences of the other times she had done this, she threw the small object at the sleeping teen with surprising accuracy. It was so well aimed that it actually struck Lloyd right in the center of his forehead.

"Yeouch!" the teen exclaimed as he quickly brought his head off of the table and looked straight ahead of him with dark chocolate brown sleepy eyes. Strands of his wild chestnut brown hair flew around wildly until they settled down with some covering his eyes due to the speed his head came up from its previous position on top of his arms. Parts of the bright red shirt he was wearing became stained with white marks as the chalk that had bounced off of his head and into the air fell onto it. It eventually landed on his lap where the chalk dust made an even deeper impression on his black pants. The books he was laying on were pushed so close to the edge of the table from the reaction that they were slightly swaying around and were threatening to fall down to the floor and make a loud thud that probably could have easily hurt one's ears.

Once he had somewhat calmed down from the sudden and painful awakening, he gave a small wince as he gingerly rubbed at the spot where the chalk had made hard, painful contact with his forehead. If one were to look carefully, they could see a small bump starting to form right in the middle of it.

"Wh-what was that?!" he asked as he quickly looked around until he saw the piece of chalk on his lap and picked it up with his hands that were encased in red gloves. "What happened just now?"

"What just happened is that you've just woken up from your nap, Lloyd," Professor Sage sighed while shaking her head and dusting off some of the white dust from her black pants as some of the class started to snicker again. "It's nice for you to be back with us. Honestly, how do you manage to fall asleep every day around the time when I'm about to start teaching my History lesson? It doesn't seem to matter if I change the plans around. You always manage to fall asleep at this part of class. You're seventeen now. You're supposed to be setting a good example for the rest of the class, especially the younger ones."

"Oh, uh, hello, Professor Sage," Lloyd replied with a sheepish smile as he quickly cleared his throat of its sleepy grogginess, oblivious of the lecture he had just received since his brain was still running on slow. "Uh, what're we doing right now? Are we working on a new subject or something?"

"Unfortunately, you're still half-asleep to even register what I had just told you," she sighed in frustration as she took a seat behind her desk. "Just please try to stay awake for the rest of class today, will you? If I catch you falling asleep in class again, it'll be an after-school detention for you.

"Anyway," Professor Sage continued on as she regained her calm demeanor as if nothing happened, "let me go ahead and teach you all a new lesson. However, before we do so, let me ask a question. This is directed to the entire class. How much about the ancient war from four thousand years ago do you know about? I want to see some hands in the air if you know even a little bit about it."

In response to this question, only a few hesitant hands rose into the air. Just for the record, none of them belonged to Lloyd, although he did seem to be racking his brain for any sprigs of facts he knew on the subject.

"Mikelen, how much do you know about this?" the professor asked as she pointed to a young teen boy that was three rows in from her position.

"It was called, "The Ancient Kharlan War," a war that was fought between the…neighboring countries over the usage of Mana?" the boy answered in a questioning tone at the last part of his explanation. "At least, I think it was against neighboring countries. I'm not sure, though."

"Not bad, but you got the second part wrong. Can anyone else tell me who fought against each other in the war? Do you have the answer, Celestia?"

"I believe it was a battle fought between the humans and half-elves," a young pre-teen girl two seats behind Lloyd replied hesitantly. "I don't know much else beyond that and what Mikelen said, though."

"That's alright. You were still correct. The Ancient Kharlan War was a war fought between humans and half-elves over the power of Mana. Can anyone tell me what Mana is and what it can do?"

When the professor voiced this question, only one hand raised up into the air. That hand belonged to a young boy who looked no older than twelve. It was the same boy who rolled his eyes at Lloyd earlier when he was still asleep. He also happened to be Lloyd's best friend.

"Alright, Genis," Professor Sage acknowledged the boy who seemed eager to answer. "Please explain to the class what Mana is and what it does."

"Mana is what many scholars of the past have believed to be the very life of our planet, Sylvarant," Genis explained in what Lloyd knew was going to be a somewhat long explanation, yet he still made an attempt to listen. "It's basically what controls the forces of nature; the tides of the oceans and the fertility of the planet's soil to name a few examples. Many of the scholars from the past hundred years or so have considered it to be the very blood and breath of the planet itself after partaking in some vigorous research. The reason as to why the battle between both half-elves and humans over Mana ensued sometime four millenniums ago has yet to be uncovered. However, it is known for a fact that the half-elves prevailed in the war after claiming their victory on the holy ground of Kharlan; thus, this event has been named, 'The Great Kharlan War,' in respect to the holy grounds where the war came to its conclusion."

"Very good job, Genis," Professor Sage complimented the boy with a small smile. "That is exactly what Mana is. You even managed to tie it in with some details that concern the war. Very nicely done. Yes, Mana is what controls most of the forces of nature on this planet. It helps us produce the many fruit trees and basic medicinal plants needed for our survival. With that in mind, who here can tell me what has been happening throughout the world within the past couple of years? How about you, Colette? Can you provide us with an answer?"

"I will try," a golden haired girl in a white shirt and purple pants next to Lloyd answered as she stood up. "Flash floods have been occurring in towns and other areas that are closest to the shorelines. They have been especially bad around the Palmacosta region, but the town itself has thankfully yet to receive any irreparable damage from its raging and unforgiving torrents. Also, crops have been becoming scarcer because of the ground's nutrients being fertile in the more rural areas like here in Iselia. The crops that did manage to grow have started to wilt even before they have had the chance to be harvested, therefore causing poor harvest seasons and vast shortages of fresh produce around Sylvarant. Both of these problems are caused by the ever growing severe shortage of Mana that has befallen our planet."

"A very good answer," the professor said with another smile. "Very nicely said, Colette. Or should I be calling you 'The Chosen One' now? After all, it was the angels themselves who have bestowed upon to you this task in restoring the world's supply of Mana back to its original state. No doubt everyone all around Sylvarant will be praying for your success once you begin your journey."

"I-I will try my hardest to make those who wish it so happy," Colette said as she quickly sat back down from the embarrassment of receiving such high praise from the professor. "I promise that I will bring Mana back into its original state and allow for the planet to flourish once more."

"It's nice to hear such confidence coming from the chosen herself. We will be looking forward for that day to come. Now, we are just about almost out of class time. Are there any last questions before we end for the rest of the day?"

"Uh, what about the Desians that are all over Sylvarant, Professor Sage?" Lloyd, who managed to not fall back asleep this entire time, inquired. "Aren't they a major contribution to the current Mana shortage or something like that?"

"So you _have_ been paying attention to some of my History lectures!" the professor replied as she looked at her student with amused sky blue eyes. "I'm very impressed, Lloyd. You are absolutely right. The Desians _are_ a big source of our problems in terms of our land's Mana supply. However, we are just about out of time and I fear that this explanation might take up a lot of class time, so we will save this conversation for tomorrow. Until we reconvene, I want you all to familiarize yourselves with the story about The Great Kharlan War. That will be your homework for tonight. That is all for today, so class dismissed!"

As if the professor had said some kind of special word or something, the entire class stood up and started to wander around the classroom. Some went to talk with their friends while others made ready to leave for home. Lloyd, however, just sat there and decided to crack open one of his school books and skim through it.

"Is it just me, or am I actually seeing you study, which you hardly ever do, ever since I've first started to know you?" Genis asked in a teasing voice as he approached his best friend's desk. "I didn't expect you to come up with a question like that earlier since you always fall asleep in the middle of her lectures."

"Aw, shut it, Genis," Lloyd replied half-heartedly as he closed his book with a soft thud. "It's not as though something like that has never happened before. I'm pretty sure even a dummy like me can have a smart moment, right?"

"I suppose you're right," the boy said with a smile as he perched himself on the edge of Lloyd's desk. "You sure did surprised my sister, though, when you asked her that question. By the way, why are you calling yourself a dummy? You're a smart guy; maybe not as smart like me, but you're still pretty good."

"Was that supposed to make me feel better about falling asleep during class?" the older teen asked as he raised an irritated eyebrow at the younger boy. "If that's what it was meant to do, then it didn't work. It sounded more like you were bragging about yourself rather than trying to help me."

"Whatever," the boy said as he reached into his back pants pocket. "By the way, I ran into Dirk this morning on my way here. He said that he wanted me to give this to you, seeing that you and I are best friends and all, so we'd be bound to run into each other at some time."

Taking his hand out of his pocket, Genis had a white envelope in his hand that was crumpled from him sitting on it. He then placed it on the table and slid it slightly towards Lloyd as if telling him to immediately open it.

"He gave you this in order to give it to me? Thanks a lot, buddy. I wonder what's in here."

Taking the crumpled envelope off of the table, Lloyd tried to guess what its contents were by weighing it on his hand. It did not do much to relieve his confusion for it seemed to weigh as light as a feather. Deciding to take it a step further, he opened it up and took out the contents that were in it. It was money in the form of bills and a letter.

"Why did Dirk put Gald in an envelope for you?" Genis asked as he saw his friend take the money out. "I would understand if it was only the letter, but why also the money?"

"I don't know," Lloyd admitted as he wondered the same thing. "Maybe he had written his reasons on this letter. Only one way to find out for sure."

After making sure that he had the money safely tucked away into his pants pocket, he took the letter that he had placed on the table earlier and unfolded it. The contents of the letter were written in black ink and neat script writing that it was almost impossible for anyone to not be able to read it.

"Seems like it's a big letter," Genis observed as he tried to read the letter upside-down from his position. "What's it say?"

"Well, maybe if you stop hovering over it, I might be able to read it better," the teen replied as he indicated at the shadow cast by the boy. "You're kind of blocking my light and that really makes it hard to read dark ink."

"Oops, sorry about that," the boy apologized as he hopped off of the table and decided to try and read over his friend's shoulder. "Didn't mean to do that. Is that better now, Lloyd?"

"Yes, thank you, Genis," Lloyd thanked him as he began to read the letter. "Let's see what it says:

_Dear Lloyd,_

_I have enclosed in this envelope your pay that was supposed to be due to you tomorrow. Now, you are probably wondering why I am giving it to you a day early. Well, it seems as though I will not be at my house for all of today and the majority of tomorrow, so I thought it best that I send it to you today. Before you put this letter down and start counting your money, keep reading this letter for I have listed a couple of important things that I want you to know._

_First, I will be out of my house for today and the majority of tomorrow, as I have already stated earlier. The reason being is because I have been offered a job by a traveling caravan requesting that I create some weapons for them. Now, I know what you are probably thinking. "Why would Dirk accept a job that would require him to leave his home, away from all his tools and materials?" Well, the people of the caravan were quite adamant on me going to where they had set up camp in order to build their weapons. Naturally, I had refused to do so, but when I saw who was among them, I decided to make an exception this one time. That being said, I will be at their campsite creating weapons for them up until tomorrow evening._

_Next, there is something that I want you to do in my stead. As you probably remember from a month ago, I sent out a request to Triet asking that they send me their best hammer meant for smiting weapons and whatnot. If everything goes well, the carrier carrying my hammer should arrive in Iselia by midday tomorrow. Since I am going to be stuck at the caravan campsite for a while, I cannot possibly go and retrieve it myself. That is why I am asking you to pick it up for me. We agreed to meet at the front of the general store in the center of town and make the transaction there. If you would do this for me, I would greatly appreciate it._

_Along with your pay, I have enclosed the amount of money needed to pay for the smiting hammer. It should be enough to cover the cost of the hammer itself and travel expenses for the carrier. If there happens to be any money leftover, I give you permission to keep it. Consider it as a small bonus for working so hard during the past couple of years._

_Now, there is one more thing that you should be aware of. Since I am going to be out of my house for more than a day, I took the liberty of not only locking up, but also taking the only key with me as well. It would not do to have all my things stolen while I was gone. That means the key will not be hidden at the place where I normally put it when I go out for only a couple of hours and you are to come within that time. With that said, I would like to ask one more favor of you: Please keep the hammer in your possession until I return tomorrow evening. I am sorry if I am imposing on you like this, but I can trust no one else with this task other than you. So please make sure to not lose it._

_Sincerely,_

_Dirk_

_P.S.,_

_Make sure to conduct the trade inside the general store. You never know when you might need a helping hand with a trade._

"Even when he's away, he can still find a way to keep you busy with work," Genis said with a small shrug once Lloyd was done reading. "Sounds like he himself is going to be kept pretty busy. He must have stayed up last night writing this letter and making sure nothing got left out, huh?"

"I would guess so," Lloyd replied as he put the letter back down on his desk. "He is a pretty thorough guy when it comes to him leaving his home where all of his things are. Then again, I think all dwarves are like that."

"And how would you know that, Lloyd?" the boy asked as he saw Professor Sage start to pack up her belongings. "Except for Dirk, there haven't been any signs of dwarves for the past twenty years or so."

"That doesn't mean that they all died out or something like that," the teen retorted as he rubbed his eyes that were weary from reading such a long letter. "I once asked him the same thing and he told me that most tend to live underground away from any human contact. He just happened to be the exception and was living aboveground. He said that it was better out in the sun than in the dark with only a candle as a light source. He did say the only problem he has up here, though, was that it was colder up here than it was down there."

"Alright, boys, it's time for you to cut your conversations short," the professor addressed the two of them, who were the only students left inside the classroom now since they had spent a long time reading the letter. "I've got to close the schoolhouse now and get on home. I've got a lot of work to do."

"Alright, sis, we're coming," Genis answered as he took his book bag from his desk and walked over to where she was and helped her carry some of her stuff.

"Hey, let me help you carry some of those things, professor," Lloyd offered to help as he quickly stuffed both the letter and the envelope into the pocket that held his money and the money for the hammer and took his book bag as well.

"Thank you, Lloyd," the professor smiled as she took her bag full of school materials and a small stack of folders into her hands. "I really appreciate it. You know, if you would only act this diligent everyday during school, I would be able to die a very happy teacher."

"Oh, come on, Raine," Genis scoffed as he slung his book bag over his shoulders and picked up a stack of test papers. "Do you really think Lloyd would ever act like that in school?"

"Hey, I could if I wanted to!" Lloyd retorted as he shouldered his book bag and took the three heavy teacher's edition books in his arms. "I just…haven't decided to do so yet, that's all."

"Yeah, sure," the boy replied sarcastically as he gave a small smile. "That's what you say, but do you really mean it?"

"Come on, boys," the professor called out to them from the doorway as she jingled the keys in her hand. "Less arguing and more moving please. I would really like to go home now before tomorrow comes around."

"Yes, Professor Sage," Lloyd sighed as he and Genis exited the classroom with their hands full of stuff just as she was closing the door.


	3. Just Another Typical day After School

**Chapter 2: Just Another typical Day After School**

For the few short minutes that the small group were walking together, Raine was busy talking to Lloyd in a stern voice about his lack of proper school etiquette. Lloyd, who had nearly tripped over a rock and came close to dropping the heavy books he was carrying, was trying to mitigate the verbal damage being done to him but to no avail. Genis, who was just a couple of paces behind the two and making sure the wind did not take any of the papers from his stack away, was smirking at the misfortune his best friend had on being lectured by his sister.

It was only when they had reached the front door of a home, the Sage's home to be more precise, did she stop her lecturing and ushered both her young brother and the teen she was just chastising inside. Thankful that he did not have to suffer his teacher's verbal punishment anymore, he walked into the house and put the heavy books onto the table in the dining room.

"Anyway," the professor started in a calm tone as she locked the door behind her, "thank you again for helping me carry my books back home, Lloyd. I really do appreciate it, despite what my chastising might have said otherwise."

"Oh, uh, it was nothing, Professor Sage," Lloyd replied as he hesitated at the sudden change in mood displayed by his teacher. "I-I'm just happy that I could be of help to you."

"Are you sure that's all you're happy about right now, Lloyd?" Genis, who had placed the stack of papers right next to the books, asked in a teasing voice. "From what I heard on the way here, it sounds as though you have more than one reason to be happy right now."

"Oh, shut it, Genis," Lloyd said as he rolled his eyes a bit at his friend's comment. "Anyway, if there isn't anything else that you would like me to do, I'll just go ahead and make my way home now."

"What? Do you really have to?" the young boy asked with a raised eyebrow. "I was just about to ask if you wanted to hang out here for a bit and maybe have dinner with us later?"

"That does sound like a nice idea," Raine commented as she made to put her stuff into the coat closet next to the entrance. "It'll be a good chance for the two of you to study up on The Ancient Kharlan War together. Plus, Genis seems to want to have you over for supper, as he has already indicated. I don't really mind if you choose to stay for a while.

"Thanks professor and Genis," the teen answered. "However, I think that I have to go on home now. I need to put the gald I just received from Dirk away before I get robbed again like I did a couple of years ago when I first started working for him. I don't want that happening again."

"Dirk paid you early this time around?" the professor asked with a puzzled look on her face as her younger brother was rummaging through the kitchen cupboards and taking out various things from them. "That's strange. He doesn't usually do that. He's the type of person who strictly believes on things being done in a timely manner, neither early nor late. Why would he go and…? Oh, now I remember. I saw him come into town earlier this morning and give something to Genis before setting out again. I was wondering why he did that. So I would take it that he's not going to be at his home past the Iselia Forest tonight?"

"Nor is he going to be there for the majority of tomorrow. He said something about taking on a job from a caravan group and having to make their weapons at their camp as per their requests. The letter he sent me said something about someone he knew in the group and making an exception because of that."

"How unusual of him. I suppose he does have his reasons for doing so, however. Anyway, are you sure you don't want to stay for at least a little while? I really do think it would be good if you two studied together."

"Sorry, professor, but I can't. I have to go and do a little shopping at the general store before it closes. I'm going to head on home after that."

"Wait a minute," Genis butted in while he was putting some water into a pot. "I thought you said that you were going to go home and put your money away or something along those lines. What happened to that idea?"

"Well, I got to go shopping for my personal well being before I go and put all of my money away," Lloyd explained to the boy with a sigh. "I don't just go earn my money and keep it somewhere safe for the rest of my life while I outgrow my clothes and starve to death. I'm not that crazy."

"I…didn't think of that," the boy admitted as he put the pot full of water on the kitchen stovetop. "I guess when you have money to burn, you tend to phrase certain things differently. Either way, I guess it makes sense why you're leaving now. I'll see you tomorrow at school then."

"Yeah, I'll see you then, bud," the teen replied as he made his way to the door. "Bye, professor."

"Goodbye, Lloyd," she said as she took a seat on a dining room chair and opened one of the books from the stack. "You be careful walking home now. I expect to see you at school tomorrow."

"I'll be careful."

And with that, he left the Sage's house and had entered the streets of Iselia with his backpack hanging tightly on his back.

"Man, the sun's already a little past halfway down towards the horizon," he speculated as he looked at the beautiful orange sun that was setting towards the ocean coastline near the village. "The store closes when it's three-quarters of the way down. I better hurry up and get there."

Without wasting any time, he made his way to the general store with his money and letter from Dirk in tow. As he was walking down the dirt path, he saw a few of the younger kids from school playing a game of tag, or some kind of variation of it, with each other. Adults passing by watched the children play with a small smile as they saw children having fun in such hard times. Even Lloyd himself smiled a bit at this playful sight.

Once he had reached the center of the village, the general store was just a few paces away. From where he was standing, he saw that it was somewhat busy, as it normally was this at this time of day when the store was about to close and people doing their last minute shopping before it did. Some of the shoppers were standing outside looking at some of the various fresh fruits that was in barrels lining the front walls. The other shoppers were inside viewing the bargains the store was promoting and other products on the store shelves.

Making his way through the small crowd gathered near the doorway, Lloyd entered the general store, not bothering to see what was in the barrels. After all, he did not feel like buying any fruit this time around. Instead, he happened to be craving some simply prepared meat with lettuce between two slices of bread. That's what he had in mind when he came here.

"Hello, Lloyd," the shopkeeper greeted the teen who had just walked into the building as he was serving a customer. "It's a pleasure to see you today. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Hey, Nirran," Lloyd greeted the man back. "No, I'm alright. I'm just here to pick up a few foodstuffs before I make my way back home. Nothing complicated or anything like that."

"Alright," Nirran replied as he was about to serve another customer. "Just holler if you need anything."

"Got it," the teen answered as he made his way to where he knew the bread and meat were kept. "I don't think I'll need any help, though. If I needed help for just a couple o fsmall things, then something is definitely wrong with me."

Within a couple of minutes, Lloyd made his way back to the shopkeeper with his foodstuffs in hand; a bagged loaf of pre-sliced bread in one hand and a small package of beef strips and half a head of lettuce tightly wrapped in another. He was debating whether or not to buy some tomatoes while he was at it, but he thought against it and figured that he should save the rest of his money for any possible emergency situation. With everything he needed on him, he walked up to Nirran's counter and waited behind an elderly customer.

"I hear that the Oracle is going to be coming around soon," he heard the old woman casually say as she drew some gald out of her purse. "I can't wait for the Journey of Regeneration to start."

"Same here, ma'am," Nirran answered back as he was calculating the total amount of her items. "Sylvarant has already been through enough damage due to Mana depletion to last it a lifetime. I pray that this journey will be a successful one. Seven Chosens have already been blessed with this task since the start of the decline. Seven have fallen trying."

"Well, as you said before, let us pray that this journey be successful," the woman agreed with him as she gave him the amount of money he had just murmured. "Thank you for your wares , Nirran."

"And thank you for your patronage, ma'am. You be careful on your way home now. Now Lloyd, will that be all for you?" he asked as he shifted his attention to the teen who was walking up to the counter.

"Pretty much," Lloyd answered as he placed his groceries on the counter for Nirran to calculate. "I don't really need anything else for now. By the way, I couldn't help but to overhear the conversation you had with the old lady just now. Is it true what you two were talking about?"

"Unfortunately, it is," Nirran sighed as he checked out the groceries and began to calculate their total amount. "Then again, you should know all about it by now. After all, I'm sure you have already learned about or are learning about the Journey of Regeneration in school."

"Uh, I think we're kind of on that topic already," the teen replied in an unsure voice. "Either that or we already covered it while I wasn't paying attention. I'm just not really sure."

"You really got to start paying attention in school, Lloyd. You never know when all that knowledge would come in handy. Then again, I suppose it's not my place to say. Only you have a say in whether or not you want to do well in school. Anyway, all of this totals to 250 gald."

"Alright," Lloyd acknowledged as he dug into his back pocket. _That reminds me,_ he added thoughtfully. _I forgot to check how much gald I got from Dirk. How much did he decide to pay me this time around? It really sucks that my entire month's pay depends on how much work he got in that same month. I think I should get a pretty good amount, though. So many people wanted to get new weapons to guard against the increasing number of monsters this past month. I guess if there ever was a profession where more monsters are good, it'll be Dirk's job._

When he pulled out all the gald from his pocket, he quickly counted how much he had received. Figuring that probably a thousand of it was supposed to go for the hammer from Triet, for he knew that it was pretty expensive, he saw that he had fifteen hundred for himself.

_Wow, I didn't think we had that good of a business month,_ he thought as he took out 250 gald from his personal pay. "Here it is," he said out loud as he took the foodstuffs he paid for. "Well, I better get going now. I'll see you later, Nirran."

"Bye, Lloyd, and thanks for your patronage," the shopkeeper answered back as Lloyd exited the shop. "You be careful on your way back home."

Once he was a few paces away from the crowd that had just started to thin up a bit, he took off his backpack, put it on the ground, and placed the groceries into it. After that was done, he undid the shoulder straps and repositioned them so that only one part of each strap was on the side center of his pack. He then pulled on them so that the pack was tightly on his back. Then, he brought the loose ends tightly over his shoulders to prevent sagging, yet only enough to have a little slack, and tied them together. Now, his backpack looked more like a makeshift traveler's bag where travelers would tie it tightly around them in the same fashion so it would not fall off if they were to ever run from something.

"Now I'm ready to go back home," Lloyd said to himself as he made his way to the village front gates. "Hopefully, I didn't forget anything. Ah well, I can always come back for it tomorrow."

About a minute later, he had reached the gates of Iselia. At the gates were a couple of guardsman who stood watch over the gate and a high tower man who kept track of things going on outside of the ground guards' range and warned others of any possible faraway dangers.

"You going home now, Lloyd?" one of the ground guards addressed him as he gave a small wave. "You be careful out there, you here me? Lately, the monsters outside have been getting restless."

"My guess is that they can sense the Oracle coming," the other guard speculated as he kept his eyes outside of the village. "That's probably why they're going nuts. It's just a guess, though."

"Well, that just means that they know fear," Lloyd answered as he walked past the guards. "Thanks for the warning, you guys. I'll keep an extra eye and ear open for any of them. See you guys tomorrow."

"Later kid," the tower guard called out as he gave a wave out to Lloyd, who answered back in the same fashion.

As he made his way back home, which was in the direction of the Iselia Forest, he kept thinking about the things he had heard in town. Chosens of Regeneration, the journey to replenish Mana to Sylvarant, the monsters becoming restless; it was somewhat overwhelming. What was really bothering him though was when he heard Nirran talk to the old lady earlier about seven Chosens given such a task and failing to do so by losing their lives. Now, a new Chosen, who was his good friend, Colette, has been given this divine right for the sake of the planet. It was more than safe to say that Lloyd was quite worried about her wellbeing on this journey. What if something happened to her before she was able to finish the journey? What if the priests who were to guide and support her fell at the mercy of the monsters or worse?

"M-maybe I could persuade some of them into letting me go with her," he thought out loud as he tried to calm his nerves. "After all, I did self-train myself into using two swords for the sake of protecting myself and I can use them to protect her. Heh, as if I even needed to learn how to use them to begin with. Oh well, better to be carrying weapons out in the open rather than none and drawing suspicion from the people here. Living here for a little over ten years really makes it feel like home. I still can't believe I forgot them at home today. Good thing I didn't have such a hard time talking myself out of that one."

By the time he had made it to the entrance of the forest, the sun was starting the be swallowed up by the horizon. Traveling a few feet into the dark woods, he decided to branch off of the path and hide from the view of any possible passersby.

"It's too bad that I didn't get a chance to talk to Colette earlier," he continued talking to himself with a sigh as he started to take off his gloves. "Being the Chosen seems to be a really demanding job. Everybody wants to talk to her before she gets the calling to receive the Oracle. What's with that? It's not like they're never going to see her again or something like that. Then again, I guess people hold others who have been blessed by angels in high regard as the angels themselves. I'll never understand the mindset of these people."

Once he removed his left glove, something shined from what little light that had managed to come through a break in the sea of trees. On the top of his hand was a orb of lustrous beauty both inside and out of the direct sunlight. It was multicolored, being that it kept changing various colors as time passed, which it was doing so right now. It was currently a dull purple as if it were trying to compliment the orange sunset.

"Then again, they'll probably never understand the real me," he whispered as he placed his hand over the wondrous sphere, completely blocking it from view of the sunlight. "I suppose that it's a fair trade in the end."

Suddenly, a near blinding white light completely enveloped the teen and caused the area within a couple of feet from it to be brightly illuminated. If this were to happen outside of the woods, then the Iselian guardsmen would have spotted it and probably would have sent a few men to investigate it.

For a few brief moments, the mysterious light remained and continued to embrace Lloyd in its hypnotic brightness. Then, it slowly started to disappear and the surrounding area began to dim back to its original lighting.

As the brilliant show of lights began to dissapate, the teen that was engulfed by it was now visible, although he seemed completely different from when he was first swallowed up by it.

Instead of the brilliant red shirt that Lloyd was wearing earlier, there was a sort of brown fur-like shirt mixed in with a small hint of gray surrounding him. Actually, it looked more like actual fur covering the entirety of his body, but one could not be too sure due to the lessening but still blinding light. Another difference that became noticeable as the light became even duller was that he was now on all fours instead of standing on his own two legs.

As the last of the light finally dissipated, the last and most revealing change made itself known. Standing in the exact spot where both the teen and the light were now stood an animal of dog-like nature. It had the same bodily structure of a dog, with the fur, legs, head shape, and everything else that they have; although it seemed a bit bigger than average.

The fur was wild in appearance, yet at the same time had a tamed look about it and was between shaggy and short; it was neither a tangled mass nor a short coat where the skin underneath was easily visible. Its tail was long and had fur going in the direction of the point of the tail. It moved slightly side to side as the animal's head faced upwards so its nose was pointed to the sky. It sniffed the air a couple of times and flicked its ears a couple of times as though it were content with what it wanted to know. Then, with a backpack tied tightly to its back, it traveled deeper into the woods where most travelers would not consider going for it was so far from the original path.

Lloyd was no longer a human. He was no longer your average, typical teenage boy as everyone in the village of Iselia thought him to be. With the help of the beautiful and magnificent orb that had made its home on his hand, or paw in this case, he was able to turn into a different creature altogether. He had transformed and was now a wolf.


	4. Lloyd's Everyday Lifestyle

Hello, my readers. Thanks for taking the time to read my new story. I hope you guys really enjoy it. By the way, sorry if the name for this chapter sucks. I could not come up with a really great sounding name that best fit this chapter. Anyway, do not let that bother you too much. Just read and review please. Thank you.

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Chapter 3: Lloyd's Everyday Lifestyle**

For about a minute or so, Lloyd, who had transformed himself into a wolf, was running through the Iselia Forest with his backpack tightly tied onto his back. He easily maneuvered through the sea of trees and jumped over every tree root camouflaged by the dirt as though he once lived in the woods. Actually, it was because he lived in these woods that he was able to know every small thing that was in here.

As he was slowing down to a walking pace, he began to pay some more attention to his surroundings. The last thing he wanted to have happen to him in here was to be attacked by any monsters that might have been trying to look for an easy meal out of him. However, not many in this place would qualify as such a big threat to him. After all, he was bigger than the average wolves that have made their home here, and that, in turn, meant that he was bigger than the other monsters.

After a few cautious moments, Lloyd had finally made it to his destination. He had arrived at a spot in the forest where the sun was able to shine without any hindrance from the branches and leaves above. A freshwater lake was located nearby with a waterfall thundering down from a nearby Cliffside. Behind the waterfall was a cave entrance that could be easily missed if one did not know it existed. It was to this area that the wolf made his way to.

As he followed the perimeter of the lake, he made sure that no monsters were nearby. He made a mistake of not looking around one time and he almost lost the cave to a monster that was almost as big as him. Ever since then, he made sure to always check before going in.

From a small pathway that was located next to the Cliffside where the waterfall was spewing down, the wolf entered the cave. The atmosphere inside was surprisingly warm despite the fact that the entrance was behind a splashing waterfall that had a tendency to send cool mist into the cave. Because of that, it was also quite moist in this particular area; too wet for Lloyd's liking. Thankfully, the cavern was deeper than it seemed at first glance and he walked further into it, not fearing what it had housed in its walls for he knew of this place like the back of his own hand, or paw; however you want to look at it.

As he traversed deeper into the hidden cavern, it seemed to gradually become brighter. Normally, a cave would become darker as one was to travel deeper into it. However, that was not the case with this particular one. This one happened to have an abundance unusual mushrooms growing in them. These types of fungi were unusual for that they were able to glow in the dark and produce a surprisingly adequate amount of lighting when grouped together with others of its kind. With that said, the cave was nicely lit with a slight blue tinge to it, even though it was only dimly, and the walls and other details were visible thanks to them.

Now that he was safe inside this less than ideal, yet surprisingly adequate shelter, Lloyd stopped walking and laid down on the nuke-warm ground next to the glowing mushrooms. Once he had gotten himself comfortable, he then placed his nose on his left paw where the multicolored orb was. Once again, he was engulfed in the same bright light that appeared when he first placed his hands over it a few minutes ago in the forest. Within a matter of moments, the light had disappeared and the wolf was gone. Instead, he was now back in his human form with everything else that was on him before he performed the transformation.

"Boy, I'll never get tired of doing that," Lloyd said to himself as he got up off the ground from when he was lying down in his wolf form earlier and took off his backpack. "I so love transforming myself into a wolf and then back into a human again. I really wish I could be able to do it without being so secretive about it all the time.

"Unfortunately, this stupid Exsphere on my hand that allows me to do this transformation also happens to be what the stupid guy is looking for," he added with a dejected sigh. "Except for the fact that he told me he has been working on this thing for a certain amount of time, I don't really see what's so important about this thing. Either way, he's been so desperate in trying to get it back from me that he practically has all the other human ranches trying to find me. Because of that, most of them are beginning to treat me like a criminal on the run."

With a small sigh, he walked over to a medium sized rock near the cave wall. With little effort, he pushed it to the side and made a hollow hole in the ground reveal itself. The hole was no more than about half a foot deep and was slightly smaller in diameter than that of the rock that was covering it in the first place. It was also filled with some items; items that apparently belonged to him. Amongst the things he had inside this hidden opening were a couple of gemstones of certain value, a small, lumpy pouch filled with something, and a small round object wrapped up in a dirty white cloth.

"As long as I don't try to change into a wolf out in the open, though, those guys shouldn't be able to find me," he answered with a shrug as he took the pouch from its resting place and opened it, revealing its contents of gald in both coins and bills. "After all, it's been almost ten years since he last escaped and he never even got a chance to see me in my wolf form before. That and he doesn't even know what I look like as an loder teenager right now. All he has that's even related to me is my name, but my name is a somewhat common name, so that's not even a clue. Basically, the chances of him or his friends ever finding me are close to none. However, I just can't take that chance. I don't know if they have another and possibly more effective way of finding me. The only way I can see them recognizing me is if and when they see the Exsphere on my hand, but I always keep it hidden underneath my gloves everyday, so that's out of the picture. Still, no taking chances since my life and freedom is on the line."

After he emptied his pockets of the gald he had received from Dirk, he placed he entirety of it, except for a thousand, into the pouch and closed it tightly with the attached drawstring. He then placed it back into the hole and picked up the clothed item from its resting place next to it. Being very careful as if he were handling something fragile, he unwrapped the cloth surrounding the item. Once it was successfully unwrapped, the object became exposed to the dim lighting from the glowing fungi and it was revealed to be an Exsphere.

This Exsphere, however, was different from the one he that was wearing right now. For starters, it was not attached to him in any way, even though a bracelet of sorts with a type of strange writing on it, which happened to be just like his, was embedded onto it, nor had it ever been ever since he first got his hands on it. Secondly, its color, which was a mix between sky and ocean blue, was more definite than the multicolored one he was wearing right now. Lastly, it was more of a memento more than it was an accessory for it was the only thing that Lloyd had that belonged to his mother, whom he knew had passed away sometime after his birth.

"I'm back, mom," he addressed the blue stone softly as if it were really his mother he was talking to. "Nothing really interesting happened in town today. It was practically the same as all the other days. School was such a bore as usual, and the professor gave us some homework to do. We're supposed to be studying about some ancient war that happened around four thousand years ago or something like that. I'm telling you, she always gives us homework everyday. Then again, there's really nothing new about that. I mean, this is the professor, goddess of the homework world, we're talking about here. Overall, it was just another regular day in Iselia.

"My job as Dirk's assistant blacksmith is coming along pretty well," Lloyd continued on. "It's practically the only job I can get around town, but it does give me enough money in order to get through the month. It's too bad that I only get paid based on the amount of work he gets during a particular month; otherwise, I would have more gald in my pouch right now and be able to get myself more comfortable living space. The houses in Iselia are kind of expensive, so buying myself one is kind of out of the question. That and the foodstuffs are starting to get more expensive because of this darn Mana Shortage. Because of the tightness of gald, I'm kind of forced to live in this cave. At least it provides a good barrier against the winds and rains, so it's pretty much better than nothing. Then again, you already knew that, didn't you? After all, you have seen what I have been doing for the past ten years, at least."

He paused for a while as if to figure out if he had left anything out. With a small sigh, he began to wrap up his mother's memento.

"I sometimes wish that I weren't being chased by those guys," he added sadly before he completely covered the Exsphere. "Then, I would be able to live out in the open more often than I have been able to these days. Oh well, I always hope that that day will come soon. I'll just have to keep on hoping. You'd think, though, that I would be tired of hoping for the same thing over and over after ten years of doing so. At least having great friends like Genis and Colette really makes it so much easier to hold onto that hope, especially when it's during the toughest of times.

"Anyway, it's time for me to go and get something to eat now," he added as he completely covered the Exsphere and placed it back into the hole. "I bought some stuff in town earlier in order to make myself a sandwich, so I don't have to depend on the animals out here for a while. They're not going to last long, but it's a nice change of pace in eating habits, that's for sure. Anyway, I'll talk to you tomorrow, mom. Goodnight."

Once he was done talking to the stone, he made sure that everything had made it back into its place inside the hole and covered it back up with the rock he had pushed away earlier. After it was back into place, it looked as though it was never moved and was there the entire time.

"Alright, everything's back to the way it was before I came back," Lloyd said as he quickly inspected his clean-up work. "At least all of my stuff is safe underneath that rock in case somebody happens to stumble upon this cave and decides to go exploring while I'm not here. Anyway, it's time for me to make my dinner. Thank god all the stuff I bought are already prepared. No more having to hunt down rabbits and cooking them up by themselves for now. It tastes really plain like that, and it gets really tiring after a while. That and the raw taste I get when I catch them in wolf form really isn't that much more appealing to my appetite."

Before he had lost his appetite due to the thought he had just conjured up, Lloyd sat down and went to work on fixing up his simple sandwich. He took out a couple slices of bread from the pre-cut loaf and placed them on his lap, took some strips of beef and placed them on one slice, and ripped off a couple of lettuce leaves from the half of a cabbage head and placed them on top of the meat. He then took the second piece of bread and placed it on the top, thus finishing his made-in-thirty-seconds sandwich.

Within a couple of minutes, the meager sandwich he had prepared was eaten by the voracious teen. Apparently, he was a little more than excited to be eating something else rather than plain rabbit meat.

Feeling content with his dinner, Lloyd decided that he would take a little dip in the lake outside to get himself cleaned up. Since he was pretty deep within the forest, he liked to do it a bit differently. With a small grin, he made a dash towards the entrance of the cave. He then placed his hand over his Exsphere and he transformed back into a wolf. However, there wasn't a spectacular lightshow this time and he just went straight into a wolf.

Even after he had transformed from a two legged being to a four legged one, he somehow managed to continue his running pace as if nothing happened. He continued on towards the entrance, his tongue loosely flapping around on the side of his mouth. Apparently, that was his way of grinning in wolf form while he was running.

Soon, he was within sight of the cave entrance. He could hear the waterfall splashing down onto the lake. Without giving it much thought, he jumped into the air when he was just a few steps away from it. With great speed, he broke through the fragile wall of water and made a spectacular splash into the lake behind it.

For a couple of moments, Lloyd stayed submerged under the lake water, his eyes open and taking in the sight of the life going on underwater. Then, his head broke the surface of the now rippling water and he took a small breath. The coolness of the lake felt great against the warmness of his fur coat and was overall very refreshing. He then decided to go ahead and swim around a bit.

He did not know how long he spent playing around in the water, but it was long enough that the sun had almost completely set and darkness covered the forest. Seeing with his brown wolf eyes that it was dark, he immediately climbed out of the lake and shook himself dry. Once he felt that he was going to be as dry as he was ever going to be, he made his way back into the cave where he considered actually doing what Professor Sage had assigned him. After all, he pretty much had nothing better to do tonight, so he might as well try to learn something about the Kharlan War.

When he made it back to where he left his stuff, he stayed in his wolf form and rummaged through his backpack for the textbook containing the information about the war. Once he found it, he took it out with his jaws and opened it with his nose. Amazingly, he managed to open it up on exactly the right page on where if first started to explain the war.

With a small sigh of boredom, Lloyd laid down with the book in front of him and began to read. Since he did not really know how to make a fire, he could not see much of anything in his human form; even though the fungi on the walls provided some modicum of lighting, it was not enough to constitute a good reading environment. Therefore, he solved this problem by staying in his wolf form while he read the material. After all, he had better eyesight when he was in this form. It was so good that it actually allowed him to read the pages with such ease, it was as if there were regular lights inside the cave.

After reading up the information about the war for an hour, which he found extremely boring, Lloyd closed the book and placed it on top of his backpack. With a small, wolfish yawn, he decided to turn in for the night and get some sleep.

Whenever it was time for him to sleep, he would always stay in his wolf form. The reasons he did this was: One, the fur coat gave him extra warmth during the night when the cave became slightly cold; and two, he had wolf-like hearing in this form, which allowed him to listen in on anything coming into the cave, even when he was fast asleep.

Once he found a good spot next to the rock he kept his stuff in, he laid down next to it and curled himself into a tight ball in order to become even warmer. Then, within a matter of minutes, he was fast asleep and waiting for tomorrow to come along.


	5. Lloyd's Lesson in Mana

**Chapter 4: Lloyd's Lesson in Mana**

When morning came around the next day, the rising sun made itself known within the Iselia Forest. The ground was colored a beautiful leaf green with a mix of reddish-orange from the sun penetrating the tops of the trees and the light from it shining though the breaks in the branches. The rays also managed to hit the lake, giving it a shimmering and almost mystical look to it. From the angle that it was now positioned, it also was in direct contact with the waterfall, which then gave off its bright, reflective light into the hidden cave behind it.

It was with this bright light that Lloyd, who had slept in his wolf form all night, had awoken to. As he opened his sleepy, brown wolf eyes, he immediately turned his head around so as to not be so incredibly blinded by the bright rays of light. Sure, he was settled somewhat deep inside the cave where such brightness from the sun could be considered impossible, but thanks to the waterfall acting as a reflector and amplifier for the light, it was able to travel pretty far in and was bright enough to dull out the light from the glowing fungi.

With a big yawn, Lloyd got up and began to stretch his limbs in a wolfish way. He then touched his Exsphere and transformed into his normal human form. Even though he had already done so earlier, he decided to stretch his limbs again and popped his shoulders a bit in the process.

"It's morning already," he said with another yawn as his eyes adjusted to the light. "That means that I better start heading on to school. I don't understand why school has to start so darn early, though. The sunlight always makes its way into this cave about fifteen minutes before it starts. You'd think that they could have started just a little bit later just so I could have a little bit more time to prepare and not always be in somewhat of a rush. Oh well, better get myself ready before I am late."

Without giving it another thought, Lloyd quickly picked up the book he was reading last night and shoved it into his backpack. He then put the pack on in the same fashion as when he was returning home yesterday. This time, he made sure to bring his two swords with him so Genis won't be going at him for forgetting them again. He placed them tightly on the sides of his brown belt and made sure that they did not move around too much. After all, he was going to Iselia as a wolf and it would be a real headache if they kept bobbing up and down while he was running or worse, fall off of him completely and force him to change back into a human just so he can readjust them.. That was one pain that he could live without.

Once he made sure he had everything that he needed on him this time, he quickly said goodbye to his mom, whose Exsphere he kept hidden along with his other important belongings in the hole under the rock, and made his way to the cave entrance. When he was about halfway there, he shifted into his wolf form and continued to travel like that until he had reached the edge of the forest.

Thankfully, none of the forest animals or monsters decided to attack him this morning on his way to town, so he practically had a pretty easy journey through the forest. He did have to admit, though, that it was pretty boring because of that. He was kind of hoping that he would have been able to fight one monster so he could warm up a bit. At least he was definitely not going to be late for school today; not that he was ever late before, but it was nice to have some insurance on it.

Within a matter of minutes, Lloyd had made it to the edge of the forest where he first conducted his transformation yesterday. He then changed back into a human with the help of the shadows that were cast by the trees acting as cover for anybody happening to be passing by.

"I think it's safe to say that I probably spend almost half of my day everyday shifting between forms," Lloyd speculated as he quickly fixed his hair so it did not look so messy and looked more like his regularly spiky hair. "At least it's a great time saver for when I'm moving from one place to another. Anyway, time to get to school and see how everybody's doing."

As he walked out of the protective shade of the trees, he rearranged his sword sheaths so that they were not so tight against his body. It was not so much of a problem when he was a wolf, but it was uncomfortably tight against his sides as a human, so a readjustment of his weapons was a must.

A few minutes later, he had passed through the front gates of Iselia. The morning guards greeted him warmly as he passed by them and he greeted them back. From there, he made his way to the schoolhouse and had entered the building just as the school bell rang, signaling the start of class.

"Boy, you sure know how to cut it close everyday, you know that Lloyd?" Genis, who was waiting inside the classroom doorway, said to the teen who had just entered the classroom. "You always manage to come in at the last minute. It's a wonder how you always just beat the bell by a second."

"At least it's better than being late to class," Lloyd said with a roll of his eyes. "Couldn't you cut me a bit of slack here? You know I don't really like to get up any earlier than I have to. That and my home's in the direction of the Iselia Forest."

"Yeah, whatever," the kid replied nonchalantly. "Just try to get up earlier so you don't always end up coming right when the bell rings."

With that said, Genis turned his back to his friend and made his way to his seat. Lloyd followed suit. However, just as he was about to take his seat, the boy came back next to him with a quizzical look on his face.

"What?" the teen asked as he put his stuff down on his table. "You're looking at me kind of strangely."

"Oh, it's nothing," the boy replied as his face partially got rid of its questioning gaze. "It's just that something seems really off about you this morning."

"What do you mean by 'off,' Genis? How is it you think that something is strange about me today?"

"I-I don't know, but it definitely doesn't seem normal."

"What doesn't seem normal? Don't tell me that I forgot something at home and that's what you're feeling weird about? If that is, then you're just acting crazy because I made sure I had everything that I'm supposed to have on me today before I left home. I have all of my school stuff on me."

"You know I don't worry about things like that, especially when it has to deal with you in terms of forgetting stuff. No, it's something else. I think it's your Mana level that's bugging me. I mean, now that I think about it, it has been acting kind of weird of a couple of months now."

"M-my Mana level? Wh-what are you talking about? How can you tell if there's something wrong or, at least, off with my Mana?"

"Uh, that's because I'm an elf, Lloyd," Genis replied in a tone that suggested that Lloyd should have already known that. "I have the ability to sense that kind of stuff. Although, I'm actually kind of surprised that you knew you had Mana in your body in the first place."

"Hey, you can make me seem a bit smarter than that," Lloyd replied in a mock offended tone. "I at least pay attention to some of the professor's lectures. Doesn't every living thing on the planet have Mana in them? They all just have different amounts, depending on what they are and what species they belong to. Also, not only elves, but animals, too, are more in tune with Mana, which is the force that controls nature, than humans and can sense abnormalities within it. Am I right?"

"Wow," the boy exclaimed with slightly wide eyes. "I think that this is the first time that I've ever heard you say something academically correct."

"Not only that, but it was explained with acute accuracy, too," Raine added suddenly with apparent amusement in her voice as she and the rest of the class had their eyes, some also wide in shock, on Lloyd. Apparently, class had started some time before he made that speech. "I didn't know that you knew so much on the subject, Lloyd. It was very nicely put. That was a surprising, yet nice, way to start the class."

"Oh, uh, thanks, I guess," the teen replied sheepishly as his cheeks started to turn red. Meanwhile, Genis had returned to his seat with a smirk at seeing his best friend's reaction. "I just…happen to be really interested in it, is all. It's kind of my favorite subject, professor."

"Oh, I can see that," the professor replied with a smile. "Well, since it's your favorite subject, maybe you can tell us a little bit more about how Mana works in living organisms such as you and I."

"Uh, I could try," he answered somewhat timidly as he never really got to explain anything in front of the entire class before. "I don't think it would be the right answer, though. I mean, I don't think that scholars have really figured out that much on the subject."

"That's alright. I would still like to hear your thoughts on the matter, regardless on how much factual information there is regarding it."

"Okay then. Um, well, everything that lives on this planet has some amount of Mana in their bodies. Plants depend on it in order to successfully survive. Humans are not as dependent on it, yet they still rely on it. It's kind of like…a second type of blood flowing through us; a type of blood that helps to keep everything about ourselves in order. Even a slight change in a person's Mana could be devastating, although it differs with everybody and…elves tend to be not affected by those changes.

"Speaking of elves," Lloyd continued as he began to gain more confidence, "they have the ability to sense Mana around them and any sudden changes in it. It also seems that animals have that ability as well. In my opinion, I think that both of these groups are somehow more in tune with the force that governs Mana. I mean, elves like you professor and Genis can use magic with it while animals probably use it as a way to help them detect danger. That's pretty much all I know about it."

"Very, very good job, Lloyd!" Raine congratulated him with a very wide smile. "I truly never knew that you were this devoted to studying Mana. It is truly a pleasant surprise."

As she continued on with her praise, most of the class continued to look at Lloyd in shock. It was as though they were not sure if this was really him they were looking at. The only people not looking at him like that were his two friends, Genis, who was nodding his praise to him with a small smile, and Colette, who was beaming him one of her bright smiles. It was from these two that he felt less embarrassed about the stares he was receiving.

After a couple of minutes of the professor's praise, which was somewhat rare for Lloyd to be receiving, Raine began to teach her class the lesson that she had planned for them. Of course, the class still had some shock in their systems from earlier and were still somewhat mentally scattered, but they started to pay more attention when she decided to bang her desk in demand for their attention.

For the next couple of hours, the class was subject to Raine's long lectures and assigned work from the textbooks. Apparently, she had already decided to devote today's lessons around Mana for she was using some of Lloyd's earlier remarks as examples. She told of how the elves of ancient times depicted the origins of when it first appeared, saying that it was once housed in a giant tree of lore. Being that there were no official records of such a tree ever existing, it could only have been considered elven lore at best.

"Now that we have learned about the elven lore concerning the Great Tree of Mana," the professor continued on with her lecture despite some groans of protest from her students, "we shall move on to the history about The Great Kharlan War. Let us all open our books to the fifth chapter and start reading."

"Um, professor," Colette kindly interrupted Raine, "would it be alright if we took just a small break? You have already given us a lot of things to remember. Some of us might need some time to let it all sink in first before we continue."

"Yes, that's a good idea," the professor admitted with a thoughtful look. "In fact, I am feeling just a little bit fatigued myself. Alright, we shall take a five minute break. You may wander around the classroom, but don't even think about leaving the room. If you need me, I shall be up here at my desk."

Without even uttering a small thanks to her, the students happily got up from their seats and began to get into their group of friends. Lloyd, Genis, and Colette got together and started to talk with each other.

"Lloyd," the professor called from her desk before the three friends even had a chance to start on a topic of interest, "do you mind coming up here for a moment? I would like to have a word with you."

"Uh, sure," Lloyd answered as he got up from his desk and walked up to his professor. It was not as though he had much choice in the matter, anyway. Refusing to go up to the professor when she asks without good reason would be pure suicide at best. "What is it that you would like to talk to me about?"

"Oh, I just wanted to have a little private chat with you," Raine explained as her student made it up to the front of her desk. "I just wanted to say how pleased I was to hear you speak with such passion about Mana."

"Oh jeez, it was nothing, Professor Sage," the teen said as he rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "I just know a lot about it because I'm interested in the subject."

"I can tell. I honestly didn't expect for you to actually be so immersed in a school-related topic such as that. Anyway, let me go ahead and move on to why I really called you up here."

"Oh, okay," Lloyd answered as he mentally winced at that last comment. "Did I do something wrong again?"

"No, no, it's nothing like that this time," Raine assured him with a warm smile. "I was just concerned as a teacher, though, about you. I have been noticing something odd about you for the past couple of months."

"Are you talking about my Mana levels, professor?" the teen asked. "If you are, then I already know that it's kind of abnormal right now. Genis already told me about it earlier before class started."

"So you already know," the professor replied calmly. "I pretty much expected him to have told you that. Then I'm sure you know what the potential problems of this may arise. Have you been feeling well lately?"

"As well I ever could be. Until he actually told me about the strangeness of my Mana today, I never really knew something was off with it. I haven't been feeling anything out of the ordinary and everything has been going on as normal. Then again, I'm sure that I said that the effects of the abnormalities in a person's Mana level and the appearances of it differ with everyone."

"Yes, you did say that. However, I'm not sure if my Genis told you this, but you're the only one in this entire class who has this unusual flux in Mana levels within the month. Actually, you're the only one with this strange phenomenon period."

"R-really? Th-then how different is it from the average person's Mana level right now, professor?"

"It's currently at a high level; too high for a normal human like yourself, no offense, to actually be unfazed by it. I must admit, you are what I consider a walking miracle to not be feeling sick from this. You must have a high affinity for Mana."

"Uh, what does that mean, professor?"

"It means that you and Mana have a certain attraction to each other. In other words, you have a tolerance for high exposure to Mana. I've never heard of a human having such resilience to it. Maybe you are the exception and are in tune with the force of Mana."

"But, I'm not an Elf like you or Genis."

"True, you're not," Genis suddenly responded from out of nowhere. "However, it shouldn't be that much of a difference."

"G-Genis!" Lloyd exclaimed in surprise as he quickly turned around and saw his best friend standing behind him with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Have you been listening in on me and the professor's conversation?"

"Actually, I came to check on you since Colette was starting to get a bit worried about you," the young elf boy explained. "I just happened to hear the last part of your conversation and was able to take a guess as to what you were talking about."

"Genis, you know that it's impolite to eavesdrop on other people's private conversations," the professor scolded him with a look of dismay.

"Sorry, sis," the boy replied with a small shrug of his shoulders. "I just couldn't help hearing the last part. Still, I just had a feeling that you were talking to Lloyd about his Mana abnormality. It's hard to believe that he's been able to lead a regular life with his Mana levels that high."

"That was exactly my thoughts, too," Raine agreed with her brother. "He truly is a one-of-a-kind person. You don't see people like him everyday."

"Uh, I'm still here, you know?" Lloyd said dully. "I can hear what you two are saying. Anyway, aren't elves the only ones who can be so in tune with Mana? I don't see how I can have that kind of relation with it."

"It's true that you're not an elf," Genis admitted. "However, that doesn't exempt you from having the same affinity for Mana that animals have."

"I have to agree with Genis," the professor added. "There's really no other explanation for your unusually high Mana levels."

""I-I guess that would make sense," the teen replied as he figured that that was the case. "I mean, I don't really see any other explanation for it."

"You seem to be taking this quite well, Lloyd," the young elf noticed with a raised eyebrow. "Knowing you, I thought that you were going to shout out in surprise or something to that effect."

"Yeah, well, I don't think that's really going to be of much help this time. Besides, I figured that there's a first time for everything."

_Especially when you consider what I can do, it would make perfect sense_, he added thoughtfully.

"That may be the case, but I don't want you to go overexerting yourself," the professor warned the teen. "I want you to take it easy for a couple of days and try not to be too energetic. The last thing I need from you right now is to collapse from exhaustion due to Mana intoxication."

"Uh, I'll keep that in mind, although I don't think I'll be taken down by something like this." _Especially when you take in the fact that I am, in a sense, a wolf for some of the time._

"Don't be overconfident, Lloyd," Genis warned. "It's because of that that you tend to do crazy things."

"Hey, I don't do crazy things all the time," Lloyd retorted. "I just…like to do things on the spur of the moment."

"Alright, you two," Raine interjected. "Let's stop before this starts to get out of hand. I've nothing else to say for the time being, so you two please go back to your seats. Class will resume in a couple of minutes."

"Yes professor," the two replied in unison with a synchronized sigh as they moved back to their seats.

"What did Professor Sage talk to you about, Lloyd?" Colette, who had been waiting patiently for the two to come back, asked.

"Oh, it was nothing important," Lloyd replied as he tried to brush it off as nothing. "It's nothing that you have to worry about too much."

"Yeah, that's what you're saying now," Genis said with a sigh as he took his seat in front of the teen. "Just watch until you get into a bad situation, then that'll be something important to worry about."

"Shut it, Genis!" he shot the elf a dirty look when he saw Colette frown a bit. "Anyway, it's really nothing to worry about, Colette. He was just kidding around. Everything's okay with me."

"If you say so," she replied in a doubtful tone that was well hidden behind her smile. "Just don't do anything too hard, okay? I don't want you to get hurt."

"Don't worry, I'll be careful. I promise."

"And I'll make sure that he doesn't forget that promise," the young elf added with a smile. "After all, we know that he can easily forget things like that."

"Oh, couldn't you give me more credit than that? You know that I really don't forget everything."

"Okay, I take that back. You forget almost everything."

"Oi, I give up. You seem really desperate in labeling me as a forgetter of things."

"That's because you are, Lloyd. And forgetter isn't a word."

"Guys, please stop arguing," Colette pleaded with them as she quickly took her seat. "Professor Sage is about to restart class."

"Alright, class," Raine announced right after the blonde haired girl finished her sentence. "It's time for us to continue on with the lesson plan. Let's focus now and open up your books to the chapter about the Ancient Kharlan War."

With a disappointed tone of approval chorusing from the class, the students went back to their respective seats and opened up their books. With a contented sigh, the professor got up from the seat behind her desk and approached the blackboard behind her. With nimble fingers, she picked up a piece of white chalk from its placeholder and began to quickly and neatly write and draw on it without hesitating for a good couple of minutes as she explained everything in great detail.

For the next few hours of school, with the exclusion of lunch hour, she continued to teach her lesson in this fashion, much to her students' dismay, in an almost euphoria-like state until the dismissal bell rang. It was with this bell that the students ran out of the schoolhouse before Raine had a chance to complete the entirety of her lesson, much to her dismay.

"Oh, well," she sighed as she took a quick glance around the classroom and saw that she was the only one left inside. "I can always finish up the lesson tomorrow. Since everybody has already left, I guess I'll make my way back home, too. After all, even my brother left without me so there's no point in staying here."

With another small sigh, the professor quickly packed up her belongings and prepared herself for the walk back home.


	6. Dirk's Errand

**Chapter 5: Dirk's Errand**

"Whew, I thought that darn bell was never going to ring," Lloyd sighed out exaggeratedly as he, Genis, Colette, and their other classmates exited the schoolhouse and quickly made their way away from it. "I swear, the professor was ready to continue on with her lesson all the way through the night if she wanted to. I was kind of scared of that actually happening."

"I guess she did go a little bit overboard for a while," Genis timidly admitted, for he was not comfortable talking against his sister on her teaching skills. "I mean, I was starting to think that it was a bit of overkill halfway to the end of class."

"A _bit_ of an overkill?" the teen repeated in a non-believing tone. "It was total overkill and it would have been worse if school didn't end when it did. I swear, she was starting to foam at the mouth a little for a while. I thought she was going to go into an educational lecture overload."

"But her lesson was very informative and educational," Colette politely reminded him with a warm smile. For her, she always managed to find the good side of things. "We did learn a lot about the ancient war and, because of you, a lot about how Mana works, too. You were really great on that, Lloyd!"

"Oh, y-you think so?" Lloyd asked with a shy smile; a complete 180 from his earlier attitude. "Th-thanks, Colette."

"Boy, that was a pretty quick change in attitude," Genis noted with a smirk before letting out a small sigh. "You're always easy to butter up with things like that, you know that, Lloyd?"

"Sh-shut it, Genis! A-anyway, what are you going to be doing right now, Colette? Anything important that you need to finish? If you don't, then maybe we can hang out for a bit?"

"Oh, that sounds like a lot of fun!" she replied happily before her face fell into a small frown. "But I can't today. My dad wants me to come straight home after school. He wants to make sure that I'm safe and nothing bad happens to me."

"Oh, I forgot. Frank wants to keep an eye on you so he can better protect you against anybody who has plans on doing something to you."

"Heh, that's right. I am the Chosen of Regeneration, after all, and he doesn't want anything to happen to me before I start the journey."

"The journey for world regeneration." the teen boy said dreamily with a dopey smile on his face. "What I wouldn't give to be with you while you travel around the world in an effort to save the world."

"Knowing you, you'd probably start complaining about how boring it is before even a week of traveling has come around," Genis replied with a sigh and a small shake of his head. "You always get so excited about something and then get bored with it in a heartbeat."

"Actually, I wouldn't mind if the both of you joined me on my journey," Colette quickly replied before the two boys went into another argument. "It would be nice to have some friends around me to talk with."

"Only the priests from the temple are going to accompany you, right?" the young boy asked rhetorically. "Are you sure that they would allow even one of us to go with you? Doesn't it tend to get a little dangerous on the roads? After all, I think they still see us as children who should stay at home."

"You idiot," the teen playfully scolded his best friend with a light tap with his knuckles on his head. "I don't think that's the case here. I'm pretty sure that's the reason why she wants us to go with her. I don't think that the priests themselves would be able to protect her for the whole of the journey. They're bound to run into a couple of things that they just can't take care of. She wants us to not only be with her, but to also protect her in the times when the priests can't. Isn't that right, Colette?"

"Heh, heh!" she chuckled lightly. "I guess you could call that another reason. Anyway, I have to get home now. Even though my father wants me to go back now, I still have a few things that I really need to take care of. I don't know when I'll be starting my regeneration journey, but I'm sure that it's going to be soon. It's best that I finish anything important that I have to do here now before that time comes. Well, I'll see you both tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow!" Lloyd said as he waved to Colette who was now retreating from their view.

"Bye, Colette!" Genis said with a small wave as she turned the corner and was out of their sights.

"So," he continued on as he diverted his full attention to Lloyd in an are-you-forgetting-something look on his face, "what are you going to be doing now, Lloyd? I know you either go straight home or come over to my house after school, but isn't there something important that you have to do right now?"

"Not that I know of, no," Lloyd replied slowly as he subconsciously placed his hands into his pockets. Suddenly, his facial expression changed as he pulled something out from them. "Actually, I was wrong. I do have something important that I need to take care of today. I need to go and get that new smelting hammer for Dirk from that man who came all the way from Triet. He said that we should meeting with each other inside the grocery store, right?"

"Wow, I was half expecting that you would have forgotten all about it," the boy said in half astonishment. "I didn't think that you would have remembered about it this morning."

"I guess it's a good thing that I forgot to take the money he gave me out of my pocket last night; otherwise, I would be in a really bad situation," the teen replied with a sigh of relief. "He'd be going down my throat again about how I am able to forget something as simple as this."

"I knew it!" the young elf sighed exasperatedly. "You _did_ forget about the errand that Dirk wanted you to do in his place today! Oi, I'm taking back my last comment. I should have known better than to actually believe that you had remembered something important for once."

"Hey, don't go starting on that with me, alright? I just consider myself lucky that I forgot to put the money away last night when I went home. It's better than forgetting it _at_ home."

"I swear, only you would ever think of it that way, Lloyd. Well, before you forget again, or if you have already forgotten, go to the general store now and meet that man before he gets bored and decides to leave. You don't want to have Dirk get mad at you again for forgetting something as simple as this. You don't want him to beat you up again, do you?"

"Alright, fine!" Lloyd exclaimed impatiently. "I don't need you to remind me about that again. Just for the record, though, I didn't mean to set his shed full of materials into the beginning stages of a barbecue house. How was I supposed to have known that there was a shovel sticking out of the smelter full of hot wood chips right in front of me?"

"That's why it's dangerous to take so many things into you hands up to the point where you can't even look over the top of it and see where you're going," Genis sighed as they both made their way to the store. "What I still don't understand is how you could just carelessly drop a bunch of heavy things right in front of you on the spot where the tip of a shovel handle was sticking out from a hot wood chip pile. That was so stupid. You nearly got yourself burned."

"But I didn't," the teen countered proudly, perhaps a little too proudly for such a topic. "I still managed to put the chunks of flaming wood out before they actually caused the shed to burn."

"Was that before or after Dirk caught you and beat you up before you started putting out the burning pieces?"

"Oh, just drop it! I don't want to talk about it anymore. It's not something that I want to remember."

"No surprise. After all, it did happen about a year ago and it wasn't exactly one of your proudest moments."

"One more word out of you, and I swear the professor won't recognize you by the time I'm through with you."

"Do that and I won't recognize _you_ by the time she's through with you. I'm sure you know how she carries out her punishment."

With a quick growl of frustration, Lloyd reluctantly let their argument go. With a small victorious grin, Genis followed his friend, which probably wasn't the safest thing at the moment, to the general store.

Even though it might have not been a good idea to follow the teen from other people's point of view, the two of them knew that their arguments were only childish at best and never really meant anything. It would never escalate to the point where they would actually start to physically hurt each other. Their feelings were also never hurt because they saw it as one of those playful times where they tease one another. Now if only Lloyd could work on keeping his temper in check when he was being teased…

After a couple of minutes of walking in silence, whether mutually or in an avoiding manner, they made it to the general store. The teen noticed that it was the same usual crowd as it was from yesterday and was not surprised by it. His best friend was also used to this sight, though he still stuck close to the teen so as to not be lost by the somewhat dense sea of shoppers.

"Don't tell me that you're scared of crowds like this," Lloyd teased as he felt a slight tug of his shirt sleeve from the young elf. "You come here a lot, don't you? You should be able to know this place like the back of your hand. It's not like you're going to get lost inside or anything like that."

"It's not that," Genis answered back defensively, although he knew he was being teased and kept it lighthearted. "I just don't really like being in a crowded building. I find it to be really hard to move around."

"Oh, don't worry about that," the teen answered with a small smile just as he reached the front doors of the general store, which were as crowded as when he came here around this time yesterday. "If you want, you can go ahead and wait for me out here. You don't have to go in with me."

"Actually, I think it would be safer if I were to go in with you. When I said safer, I meant safer for you."

"For me? What do you mean by that, Genis?"

"I just want to make sure that you're paying attention while you're buying that smiting hammer from this guy. The last thing that you want to have happen to you is to have him rip you off. It's pretty easy for him to do that, considering who he's going to be dealing with today, you know that?"

"Then I'll just have to be extra careful, won't I?"

"That's what you're saying now, but I doubt that you will be when it comes down to it. I'm still going to go in with you just to make sure that everything goes right."

"Hey, do whatever you want to do. Just don't make me go and buy the wrong thing from him, okay?"

"Whatever, Lloyd."

And with that, the two of them made their way through the small crowd and into the store itself. Amazingly, there were not as many people inside as there were outside. Apparently, they were all taking a look at some good stuff outside that they did not want to go shop around inside.

"I guess old Nirran managed to get his hands on something worthwhile," Lloyd speculated as he took another glance at the crowd through the store window. "I've never really seen so many people huddled around the front before."

"I've never seen that much, either," Genis agreed as he glanced around the interior of the shop. "It must be a really popular item for them to be so eager to get one."

"You are most certainly right, my young friend," a man standing next to the empty shopkeeper's counter suddenly jumped into the conversation. "What those people are looking at are what many consider to be the Triet Desert's most valuable treasure. It is the pollen from a rare Triet cactus rose that blossoms only once every blue moon."

"Really?" Genis asked as he and Lloyd turned to face the man who appeared to be very knowledgeable on the subject. "Those are the Triet Blue Moon Blossoms that everyone's looking at outside?"

"Oh, so you have heard of them," the man said in a voice of approval. "I'm surprised that one of your age knows about them. Nevertheless, you are correct. This town is lucky to have received this shipment of blossoms for I had come here on a more pressing piece of business and saw it fit to also follow up on a request from the nice shopkeeper here."

"You came here for some other business?" Lloyd asked as Genis made his way outside the window to presumably get a better look at the blossoms. "What was it about?"

"I'm sorry, but the details of the transaction are to be strictly kept between the merchant and the buyer. However, I was just informed by the shopkeeper moments ago that the person interested in my wares couldn't make it today and had instead sent his apprentice to pick it up for him."

"Then I guess that would be me, then. I'm the apprentice of Dirk, the one whom you're trying to sell the new smiting hammer to."

"Well then, if you are who you say you are, would you mind giving me your name?"

"It's Lloyd, Lloyd Irving."

"Yes, Nirran did mention your name as the blacksmith's apprentice. Very well, then," the man who had posed himself as the trader Lloyd was looking for said as he clapped his hands together, "let us get straight on to business. As you just mentioned earlier, I am to sell the smiting hammer to you and you are to pay me the necessary amount for both the product and the travel expenses."

"How did you get to here from Triet with both the hammer and flowers on you?" the teen asked as he began to fish through his pockets for the money meant to buy the hammer. "I doubt that you walked all the way here with everything in a wagon."

"Oh, by the Goddess Martel, no! Even if I were to be pulling a wagon with everything on it, the roads would be much too dangerous for me to navigate across. Too many monsters have been popping up and occupying the routes lately for me to even consider doing that. No, I hired a mercenary group that specializes in protecting and ferrying merchants from town to town. Normally, I would put part of the mercenary service into the pay, but it wouldn't have been needed if I weren't carrying the blossoms with me, so I won't add it into the hammer cost."

"Alright, so since I'm only paying for the hammer itself, how much do I have to pay you for it?"

"Oh, being that this is a top-of-the-line smiting hammer and was crafted with guaranteed never-melt metals, I would safely say that this its worth at the least fifteen hundred gald."

"F-fifteen hundred gald?!" Lloyd flinched when he heard the price. "I-isn't that just a little bit too much for one hammer?"

"Ha, ha, quite the contrary, young man. As I said earlier, this product," the trader explained as he took the said item out of the bag that was resting on the floor next to him, "was made from only the finest metal that regular humans such as you and I can ever hope to handle and craft with. Why, many consider this kind of craftsmanship to be second only to the dwarves themselves. It's only natural for it to cost that much."

"I suppose so," the teen admitted with a sigh, yet still with mild skepticism. "But I'm sure I was led to believe that it was supposed to have cost only a thousand gald, not fifteen hundred."

"What are you talking about? The price has always been fifteen hundred. I don't know where you got that idea from. I'm sure that it's safe to say that what you were led to believe on the price of a thousand…"

"…Was right in every way possible," Genis finished off the sentence as he came back from looking at the blossoms outside. "Honestly Lloyd, how could you forget about what Dirk wrote to you in that letter?"

"Wh-when did you come back in, Genis?" the teen asked with slight shock from the sudden appearance of his best friend.

"Just a couple of seconds ago," the elf replied with a stoic face. "I caught the last couple of sentences from the trader and took a guess as to what you were talking about. It seems like I was right on the nose."

"Are you sure you heard me to the fullest?" the trader asked with a smile that seemed to be quite peppy to the point of fakeness. "I don't believe that you did for you seem to be against me on the price. The regular price for this is fifteen hundred, young boy. Surely someone as educated as yourself would agree that this well crafted item is worth every penny."

"Oh, I admit that this is one very well crafted tool," Genis replied as he continued his stoic posture as he stood next to Lloyd. "However, I don't think that it really costs fifteen hundred gald. In fact, I know that it doesn't cost that much. It's really supposed to be a thousand, isn't it?"

"I'm sorry, young lad," the trader said with a very minute amount of scorn in his voice cleverly hidden by his unwavering smile. "Are you insinuating that I don't know the value of my own wares? Let me assure you that I, in fact, do know what each and every item in my possession costs."

"I believe you on that. What I'm saying is that you used that knowledge to your advantage in order to try and swindle those who you feel have no knowledge of what they're buying. You do so by jacking up the price to where it's over the original amount, yet still somewhat reasonable where your buyer would still find it reasonable. Am I right?"

"I assure you, my young elfish friend," the trader said with his smile turned into a frown and his scorn more apparent, "I do _not_ participate in what you have just described to me as price gouging. Not only is it dishonest, but it's merit enough for me to lose my right to sell my wares as a peddler. I'm not that stupid to do such a thing! I stick by my words and say that all of my wares are legitimately priced."

"If you say so," Genis sighed out with his hands in the air as if he were giving up. Lloyd knew better than that, though. He knew that his best friend was right, once he remembered what was written on the letter that Dirk sent him yesterday, And would not just give up that easily. When he stole a quick glance at him, he swore that the young elf had a hint of a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Nirran, how much do you think this hammer here is supposed to be worth?" the young boy called out to the shopkeeper.

"A thousand gald," came the familiar voice of the shopkeeper. Startled, both Lloyd and the trader looked towards the shelves where the voice of Nirran came from. A second later, the man made himself physically known to the group in front of his counter.

"Actually, I know that it's worth that much," the man confirmed as he walked passed the now officially smirking elf and the two still shocked people and to his rightful place behind the counter. "I still have the catalog that Dirk used to make his purchase with the hammer with me. It's right here on the counter."

"Does it really say that?" the trader asked as he looked at Nirran, who was nodding his head. Without bothering to look at the catalog that was on the counter, the trader sighed. "Well then, I suppose I was wrong on this accord. Let us go ahead and make the transaction now before I forget again."

"I knew it was a thousand," Lloyd said as he fished into his pocket and drew out the necessary amount of gald. "Here you are, sir."

With an inaudible murmur, the trader took the money from Lloyd's outstretched hand and gave the hammer that had somehow made its way to the floor into his hands.

"Thank you for you patronage," the man said in a strained tone. "I hope to do business with you again."

"I'll make sure to tell Dirk you said that," the teen answered monotonously as he made his way to the door with the hammer in tow. "Let's go, Genis."

"Alright, I'm coming," the elf replied as he followed close behind his best friend. Before he exited the store, though, he turned around and faced the two men by the counter.

"By the way," he said with the same smirk he had on a few minutes ago, "I want to ask you something about the Triet Blue Moon Blossoms. You said that you brought them all the way here from the desert with the help of a mercenary group protecting your wares, right?"

"Yes, I did," the trader asked with his vocal scorn making itself known again. "What about it, kid? Don't tell me that you think I lied about hiring a group to protect me against the monsters out there."

"Oh no, that's not what I'm trying to say," Genis replied calmly as if what he were about to say was not a big deal. "I just wanted to tell you that all those flowers you claimed to have transported all the way from the Triet Desert are just a bunch of fakes."

"Wh-what did you say, Genis?" Nirran asked as his eyes, along with the trader's, widen in shock. "How do you know that they are fakes?

"Oh, come on, Nirran. It's so easy to tell whether or not they are real. You just have to look really carefully at them. The flowers that are right now outside of your shop don't have the appearance of those that were supposedly picked off of a cactus plant in the desert. Some of them have started to wilt when they are drought resistant and last for the amount of time it took for you to get here times six. I don't know what kind of flowers they are, but they're certainly not Triet Blue Moon Blossoms."

"I-I-I…" the trader stuttered as Nirran's eyes were boring into him and were exuding anger. "Now see here, you little boy! Wh-what kind of nonsense are you spilling out now? Th-that's not true!"

"Hey Genis, is everything alright in here?" Lloyd asked as he stuck his head through the doorway. "Did you forget something?"

"No, everything's alright," Genis replied as he walked out through the door that the teen had opened wider for him. Then, he said in a purposefully loud voice so everybody could hear, "I just wouldn't go and buy these flowers that are meant to be passed on as the rare Triet Blue Moon Blossoms!"

At this remark, all of the shoppers that were huddled at the spots where the flowers were being displayed looked up from what they were doing and looked at Genis with shocked eyes.

"What did you say, young lad?" a middle aged woman asked as if to be sure she heard him correctly.

"I said that these are not the Triet Blue Moon Blossoms. They're just some other kind of flower meant to pose as the real thing. Just look at the wilting ones and you'll see what I mean. After all, the blue moon was only a month ago and they shouldn't already be wilting now."

"Hey, he's right!" a man exclaimed as he picked up a flower that was drooping and losing its color. "Some of these flowers are wilting. They should still be looking like healthy plants. They're not the desert blossoms!"

Within a matter of seconds, everybody in front of the store were yelling out their disbelief and anger at such a trick. When Genis looked back inside the still open door at the trader, he saw that he was completely speechless. Nirran was also speechless, but still bore the same anger in his eyes.

"Uh, I think now's a good time to be leaving," Lloyd suggested as he started to walk away from the crowd. "I don't want to stay around and see this whole thing get even uglier."

"Alright," the elf replied calmly as he was now walking away from the closing door. However, he did not leave without managing to overhear a couple of sentences being said inside the building, despite the immense noise outside.

"Jaron!" Nirran addressed the trader in a voice that was just below a yell. "I would like to have a word with you. Now!"

"Y-yes, Nirran…," the trader replied meekly.

After that, the store door closed and Genis continued to walk next to his best friend, whom he had managed to save from becoming the victim of a swindler, with a smirk of victory on his face.


	7. Through The Iselian Forest

**Chapter 6: Through the Iselian Forest**

For a few moments, Lloyd and Genis walked together in silence while the riot that the young elf caused at the general store was still going on. Apparently, most, if not all of Iselia, caught wind of the scam and decided to gather around the shop. Some people even came out of their houses with the flowers they purchased and started to run towards the ever growing crowd, yelling something about demanding retribution.

"Boy, am I glad we left that place when we did," the teen sighed as he turned his head to get a good look at the immense sea of people at the store. "I don't think we would have been able to get out of that crowd for a while."

"It definitely is a big angry crowd," Genis replied with a smirk without once taking a look back. "If you think about it, though, they all got what was coming to them. They should have been more careful about the entire thing. They got so caught up with the fact that it's a rare plant that they didn't even bother to take a better look at the stuff before buying them."

"Hey, don't you think that you're being just a little bit too critical with everybody, Genis?" Lloyd asked. "I mean, except for the trader, most of them probably really didn't know how to tell the difference between the two flowers."

"And what about those people that did know about it? Don't tell me that they all just decided to become ignorant at the same time and go on a buying frenzy because that would be just plain stupid."

"But there's still a possibility that that is what happened. After all, when people get excited, they tend to easily lose your sense of judgment. I'm pretty sure you've had that happen to you at least once before, right?"

"I guess you're right. You say some pretty smart things every now and then, you know that Lloyd?"

"I don't know if I should be proud about that or irritated at the way you made the comment. Anyway, why are you still following me around? Not that I mind or anything like that. Is there something that you need to talk to me about?"

"Um…," Genis said in an unsure and hesitant voice before saying anything. "I'm assuming that you're going to go on home now, right?"

"That's…pretty much what I had in mind," Lloyd answered as he raised an eyebrow at this sudden question. "Actually, I was kind of thinking on stopping by at Dirk's house first to see if he's finished with his work on the travelers' requests. Why are you asking me about it?"

"Well, I was…kind of wondering if I would be able to travel with you for part of the way," the elf explained as he started to fidget around with his fingers. "I kind of have something important that I need to do."

"Inside the Iselia Forest?" the teen asked, now even more confused as he stopped in his tracks. "What's so important that you would risk being eaten by the wolves that live in there just to do? You know that they wouldn't hesitate to take a nice big, juicy chunk out of someone as small as you, you know that?"

"Oh, very funny, Lloyd," he replied sarcastically as the older teen mentally laughed at his own joke that only he could have possible understood. "I just…need to do something really important in there. Could you please take me with you for part of the way? It would really save me a lot of trouble going by myself."

"So you're basically just using me so you can get a safe ride to wherever it is you want to go inside the forest, right?"

"I'm not…! Oh, just answer the question, Lloyd!"

"Alright, fine. I'll take you with me. Just make sure that you don't go nuts while were traveling together in there. The last thing I need to happen is for a monster to attack me while I'm busy trying to cope with your craziness."

"Hey, who are you calling crazy?!"

"Well, think about it! I mean, what kind of a kid at your age would want to go to a place where they're likely to get killed just so they can attend to something that's probably more important than his own life? In my book, that would have to be a really crazy kid."

"Well, what if I told you that I was going there so I could visit someone? Would you still consider me a crazy kid after I tell you that?"

"Y-you're visiting someone?" Lloyd repeated as his eyes bulged out a bit in surprise. "Visiting someone as in going to see someone who's actually living inside the forest just like me?"

"Well, she doesn't exactly live in the forest itself, per se," Genis replied while purposely trying to leave out some key details. "I mean, I don't know about you, but she definitely doesn't live out in the wild with the crazy animals and monsters. She has…taken up residency in a place nearby."

"Okay, so this person that you're going to visit lives somewhere in the forest, yet she seems to have found herself some kind of good shelter to last her however long she has been living in there?" the teen asked as he made a mental note to not pursue the "I don't know about you" matter brought up by the elf. "If that's true, then how come I have yet to notice her for the entire time that I have entered and left that forest? I live in the same forest you're trying to go into, remember? It doesn't really make a whole bunch of sense to me."

"L-let's just say that she lives on what many here in the village consider to be private and really dangerous property," the young boy answered with a small smile and somewhat nervous chuckle. "Anyway, can we please stop talking about it and go already? I really want to see her before it gets too late and my sis starts worrying about me."

"Okay," Lloyd sighed as he continued on his way to the village exit, motioning to Genis with one of his hands to follow him. "You can come along with me. Just make sure you tell me which parts of the forests to turn in. I might know the forest well, but I don't know where this woman lives. I don't want to end up looking like an idiot lost in the place where he lives."

"Oh it's just along the main path. It's…pretty hard to miss, actually. After all, I did say that it was some kind of private property. That being the case, there's _usually_ some kind of building associated with it."

"So I'm looking for a privately owned building that just so happens to be located smack dab somewhere in the middle of the forest, huh?" the teen asked as he felt a inkling of familiarity tingling at the back of his mind from this vague description. "I can't help but to feel like I know where this place is."

"Mmm…you might, seeing as how you say you live in the forest yourself."

"Are you sure you're okay? I don't know if it's just me, but you seem to be a bit preoccupied, uneasy even, ever since we left the store. Is something bothering you that I should know about?"

"No, not really," the elf replied as he shrugged it off. "I just got a lot of things going on in my mind right now."

Figuring that he was not going to get anything more on the subject out of his friend, Lloyd dropped his line of questioning with a sigh. Instead, he chose to continue walking in the direction where the front entrance of the village was.

It was complete silence for the rest of the walk until they had reached the gates where the guards gave their usual greetings and slight gossip about the lands just outside the peaceful town to the teen. With a friendly wave, the two boys waved goodbye to the guards and proceeded to the Iselia Forest with their guard up.

"So, what can you tell me about this friend of yours?" Lloyd asked as they both entered the forest. "Is there anything special about her?"

"Well, her name's Marble," Genis answered as he took out a kendama from his pocket. "She's an old woman who was brought here from somewhere."

"Wait a minute," the teen interrupted as he unsheathed his swords. "Did you say her name was Marble?"

Yeah, I did," the elf answered with a raised eyebrow. "Do you know her or something?"

"I think I might. Did she tell you anything else besides her name?"

"Not really. She wasn't in the position to say much to me every time I went to visit her, so I don't know much about her."

"She sounds like a pretty busy woman. Sounds even busier than the Marble I knew when I was wondering around a bit before settling in the Iselia Forest."

"You were a wonderer before living near the village?"

"Oh, yeah. I forgot that you and the professor weren't here at the time. Yeah, I was a wonderer at some point. But that's something that I don't like to talk about. Besides, I don't think I would even have any time _to _talk about that."

"And why's that?"

"Because there are some monsters coming right at you right now," the teen answered as he unsheathed both of his swords from their respective scabbards and pointed one of them directly behind the boy.

At the way Lloyd had said it so calmly, Genis thought that he was just kidding around with him. However, when he heard the telltale signs of something approaching him, he turned around and saw a wolf paired up with a couple of mushrooms stimulated to life by the lack of Mana.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed as he stumbled backwards, too startled to do much of anything else except to catch his balance.

Lloyd, however, was the exact opposite. With quick movements, he stood in front of his friend in a defensive stance, waiting for the monsters to come to him. After waiting for a few short seconds, the monsters were finally within range of the teen and he lunged at them with his two swords in hand.

His first strike connected with the wolf, which was leading the monster group, and struck it on both its front and back left leg, causing it to stumble off of its course and fall to its side. While it was stunned, Genis, whom had recovered from his stumble a second or two ago, took the time to seemingly play around with his kendama. However, Lloyd, whom was now busy trying to get away from some kind of spores the mushrooms were emitting, saw this and knew better than that. It was a form of concentration for the little elf so he could tap into his natural powers and cast some elven magic. Within a couple of seconds, a small circle with some kind of writing on it surrounded him and fireballs materialized just another second later. As if it had already knew of its destination beforehand, the balls of fire quickly raced towards the wolf, which had just managed to get to its feet and started to awkwardly trot towards the little boy. It was too late, though, as the flames struck the monster, scorching it and causing it to fly back a foot or two. It did not move after that.

"Nice one, Genis!" Lloyd replied with a smile as he came to his side. "Do you think you can take care of those mushrooms for me now? I don't think I want to be near them if they start to spit out their weird stuff at me again."

"No problem!" Genis answered as he started to regain his concentration again. "My magic should be able to take care of them. Just make sure that they don't get to me before I'm done."

"I'm pretty sure I can handle that," the teen said as he readied his swords for an attack. "Just make it quick."

With that said, he quickly placed the tip of the sword in his right hand behind him onto the ground. Then, with his hand still gripping the hilt tightly, he quickly brought it back in front of him, keeping the tip of the blade on the ground and making a small, thin line in the dirt. He did this in so fast of a motion that a small burst of wind seemed to have made itself visible, traveling along the ground in the direction that the blade tip would have continued to go if it were not stopped by its wielder's hands. The small wave of wind kept on approaching the mushrooms, which noticed it and stopped in their tracks. At the last moment, they managed to dodge it by merely jumping out of the way as it dispersed just a few feet later.

Instead of being frustrated at this, Lloyd just gave off a knowing smirk. He then looked over at his friend, who had just finished reciting his chosen spell, as indicated by the magic circle, this time brown, around him. Another second later, the spell was cast and the ground began to shake. Suddenly, a small rip in the earth opened up underneath the mushrooms and they seemed to be swallowed up by the tremors caused by this. They then stayed motionless on the ground, lying on their sides as the tremor subsided and the rip on the ground disappeared, just as if it had never happened.

"Heh, that was way too easy!" Lloyd said with a somewhat bored look on his face. "I was kind of hoping for a challenge this time around."

"That _was_ pathetic," Genis agreed with a sigh. "They didn't even put up much of a fight. What sad excuses for monsters."

"At least we got through them without a lot of trouble," the teen replied as he sheathed his swords. "Now let's hurry up and get to where we need to go before more of them decide to pop up out of nowhere again."

"Good idea," the little elf acknowledged as he kept his kendama in his hands. "The place where Marble's at is just along the main road. It's pretty much in the same direction as Dirk's place, so it's pretty hard to miss."

"Are you sure about that? If I'm not going crazy or anything like that, there's only one building in that direction. That should be the Iselian Human Ranch."

"That's…pretty much the only building there."

"Don't tell me that Marble is there now and you're going to go see her?" Lloyd asked as he finally caught on to his friend's plans. "Don't you know what'll happen if you're caught by the Desians there? They're not only going to kill you, but everybody else in the village as well!"

"I know that!" Genis replied as he turned to face the direction of the ranch. "I know that Iselia has a deal with the Desians that run the ranch here. If we don't go playing around the Human Ranch or disturbing it in any way, then they will leave the town alone. However, I can't just sit around in the village feeling safe while there are others who're suffering in the ranch. If I could just make one person in there happy, then I'll be happy."

"Heh, you know you're starting to sound kind of like me?" the teen said with a small smile on his face. "That's probably the same thing that I would have done if I were in your shoes."

"Besides, she's also a friend that Raine and I met before we settled down in this village."

"Wait a minute; I thought that you said that you didn't know much about her when I asked you about her a few minutes ago."

"I really don't know much about her. I met her when I was probably just barely five. I'm sure my sis would know more about her, but all I really know right now is her name."

"That and she has been taken to the ranch here, right? Are you sure you know what you're doing? You could get yourself and the village in real trouble if the Desians catch you."

"I told you, I already know that! I can't just leave a friend all by herself in a place like that, though. She needs someone to talk to in order to not be lonely."

For a moment, the two were quiet. Neither one of them knew what else they could have said. Another moment later, Lloyd decided to break the silence.

"Well, at least your intentions for going to the ranch are good," he admitted with a small sigh. "Even I would probably do the same thing if I were in your shoes. I still don't like the fact that you're going to be there all by yourself."

"I'll be fine," Genis assured him. "I've done this a hundred times. I know all of the blind spots that they have at the front gates. I've recognized their cameras' movements and how to get around them."

"I still don't like the idea of you going there on your own. I think that I should go with you, just to be on the safe side of things."

"Are you sure you want to do that?" the young elf asked as he continued on his way to the ranch. "It's pretty dangerous for the both of us, let alone me, to be doing something like this."

"Are you trying to scare me out of this, Genis? Because if you are, then it isn't going to work. I'm not just going to let you go and visit Marble up at the ranch all by yourself and hope that everything turns out okay now that I know what you're planning to do. Besides, I want to see the old lady that you keep visiting. She must be a pretty nice woman for you to keep doing that."

"She's really nice. Thanks for sticking with me, Lloyd."

"No problem. That's what friends are for, right?"

"Heh, you're right."

And on that note, the two of them continued along the main path of the Iselia Forest. Occasionally, they would run into a couple of monsters, both animals and plants brought here by the steady decline of Mana, and they would take care of them in the same manner as they did with their first encounter. Whenever they were not being attacked by them, the two would make small talk, talking about random things like school and what they had planned for tomorrow. This kept up until they had reached their destination, the crossroads that led to two different places. One led to Dirk's house, the home of the dwarven blacksmith where Lloyd was previously planning on going to; the other led to the Iselian Human Ranch.


	8. A Friend in the Iselian Ranch

**Chapter 7: A Friend in the Iselian Ranch**

"Well, here we are," Lloyd announced as he and Genis stopped at the crossroads. "We're basically as close to the front door of the Iselia Ranch as were ever going to be without running the risk of getting caught by them."

"Thanks for bringing me here, Lloyd," Genis thanked the teen as he started to walk on the path that led to the ranch. "But you know that you don't really have to follow me into the ranch, right? I mean, I can understand that you're probably feeling a little nervous about it."

"A little might be a small misunderstanding," the teen replied as he quickly jogged to the elf's side. "Besides, I'm more nervous about you than I am about actually going myself. And for the record, I'm sure I already told you that I was going with you. I want to see if the Marble that you have been visiting for who knows how long now is the one that I know."

"Oh, I kind of forgot about that. Anyway, just try to follow my lead from here on out. I've memorized their cameras' blind spots and their movements, but we'll still have to move quickly. There's a spot on the left side of the ranch fence where the cameras don't have their lens on. That's where we're going to visit Marble."

"Well, seeing as I have never been here before, I'll trust you in this and try my best to tail behind you."

"Good. Also, make sure that you don't try to do anything reckless. This is one of those times where if you make a mistake, there's absolutely no way to fix it. Anyway, we're about to approach the line of vision on one of the security cameras, so it's time to get serious."

"Alright, just lead the way for me."

About thirty seconds later, Genis indicated with a small hand gesture to stop walking. He then motioned for Lloyd to follow him behind a bush to their left.

"Make sure that you don't talk too loudly around here," Genis warned him in a whisper. "The last thing we want right now is to have a Desian hear us and have him and the entire ranch breathing down our necks."

"Got it," Lloyd replied softly and gave a quick thumbs-up. "In turn, you just tell me when it's safe to move."

"Now!" the elf boy practically hissed as he dashed out from behind the bush and made for the next nearest one right after the teen had finished his sentence.

After a nanosecond of hesitation that occurred because of the boy's sudden remark and quick dash, the teen followed suit. When he was briefly out in the open, he noticed the sound of a camera moving around. Daring to glance over to his right, he saw the camera on top of the gray metal door. He also noticed that it was starting to turn its lens towards him. Seeing this, he put more power into his dash and made it to the next bush just a second before the camera had a good view of where he once was.

"Don't do that!" Lloyd hissed with a look of agitation on his face. "I know I told you to tell me when it was safe to go, but I didn't say for you to say it without any kind of warning. At least waiting for a few moments would have been helpful."

"Sorry, I guess I wasn't really thinking then," Genis apologized with a small shrug of his shoulders. "I just don't want Marble to get caught talking to us."

"I understand that," the teen acknowledged, "but it still would have been good if you had given me some time to react. Don't forget that I don't know much about this place whereas you do."

"Alright, I'll be careful next time. Speaking of next, we're going to be running to another bush in a few seconds. Get ready for it."

Just as he said, Genis left the safety of their bush and rushed towards the next one with Lloyd at his tail, the two of them getting ever closer to the ranch's fence. This time, the teen had no trouble beating the camera and made it to the bush with more time to spare. They repeated the same process one last time, this time seeking shelter behind one of the wide concrete fence posts and quickly crawling there way from there to a bunch of tall grass growing nearby.

"Once we pass this, we'll be in all of the cameras' blind spot," the elf explained as he pointed to a small open clearing just past the grass. "That's where Marble and I usually meet up. Unless one of the Desian guards decides to come over and see what's going on, there's practically no way for us to be caught by them."

"And how often does that ever happen?" Lloyd asked as they continued to crawl towards the other side of the tall grass.

"As far as I know, it's never happened before. Of course, I'm not saying that it would never happen. I guess you can consider me lucky so far."

"Well, let's hope that your luck continues on like that. Has she ever been caught by them talking to you yet?"

"Thankfully, that hasn't happen to her. Either that or she has been caught before and doesn't want to tell me so I won't be worried about her."

A couple of seconds later, they made it to the other side of the tall grass and into a small clearing that overlooked a cliff. From there, they went to the edge of the fence where a woman on the other side dressed in a plain brown one-piece garment with her graying hair tied into a bun had her back towards them.

"Marble!" Genis called to the woman in the loudest tone possible from a whisper. "I'm here!"

At the mention of her name, the woman turned around and had a smile appear on her face. She approached the two of them and stopped just short of touching the fence.

"Genis!" she called out to the elf in a tone that seemed to reflect her age. "I'm glad you were able to make it today. I hope the forest wasn't too much trouble for you. I've been hearing from the Desians about how the monsters were starting to become more aggressive."

"Yeah, the forest monsters are starting to increase their numbers," the elf replied as he gave a smile to her. "They weren't too much trouble, though; especially since I had Lloyd here help me out with some of them."

"Lloyd?" Marble repeated as she gave a questioning look. "Lloyd is here with you? Where is he?"

"He's right…Lloyd, what are you doing? You know you can come out of the grass now, right? I mean, it's as safe as it's ever going to be here."

"I know that, but that's not why I'm still in here," Lloyd, who poked his head out so that he was visible, explained. "I just saw a couple of Desians come out from the front doors just a second ago. I was just making sure that they weren't trying to make their way over here. They're not."

"That sounds like the Lloyd I remember," the woman replied as she closed her eyes momentarily, seemingly lost in a memory. "You always had the tendency to be overly cautious when it wasn't necessary. I see that you have yet to change that habit."

Upon hearing Marble's words, Lloyd brought his whole self out of the grass and was in full view. He had on a look of shock as he looked at the smiling face of the woman on the other side of the ranch fence.

"Hi, Marble," he greeted her with a small wave. "I didn't think that I would be seeing you before summer vacation, especially in a place like this."

"Hello, Lloyd. It's nice to see you here, even though the conditions are hardly ideal for such a visit."

"Wait a minute," Genis butted in with confusion etched into his tone. "You visited Marble every time summer vacation starts? How do you find the time to get all the way there and back within two-and-a-half months? It should take at least a month of nonstop traveling on a tamed animal."

"I think that's one of those things that you would be better off not knowing," he explained without taking his eyes off of Marble. "I don't think that that's important right now, though. What I want to know is why you're here at this ranch?"

"I wish I knew the answer to that myself," Marble said with a sigh. "The Desians suddenly came into town on a rampage and just started to kidnap people off of the streets. I just happened to be walking to a friend's house when they came up to me and took me with them. They then decided to bring me to this ranch and I have been here ever since."

"How long have they kept you in here?"

"I'm not sure, but I would say that they kept me here for almost a month now. They mentioned something amongst themselves about placing a suitable Exsphere on me yesterday. I don't know what it is, but it I would guess that it's the things that all of the other people here have on their hands."

"Exspheres? Why would they want to put an Exsphere on you?"

"I don't know, but it sounds like you know what they are."

"I think I should. After all, didn't I tell you that I was right now working for a dwarf the last time I saw you. They know a lot about crafting accessories, especially when it comes to charms that are meant to be worn with an Exsphere."

"Why do Exspheres need to be worn with a charm on them?" Genis asked. "What's the point in doing that?"

"Well, from what Dirk has taught me over the past couple of years I've been working for him," Lloyd explained, "Exspheres are things that can supposedly make a person sick when it comes into contact with the bare skin. I'm not sure about how it exactly does that, but he said something along the lines of it sucking out the energy from the person it's attached to."

"Oh," the elf replied as he started to gain a vague understanding. "Is that why they should have a charm on them when they are attached to a person?"

"That's pretty much it. However, the charm itself is a separate piece and needs to be created by some kind of special metal. I'm not sure what it is, but Dirk would know about it. I do know that when it's combined with the Exsphere, whether or not you already have it on, it won't make you sick anymore."

"I see you have learned a lot from this Dirk fellow," Marble happily observed. "I told you that you could learn anything if you only put your mind to it, didn't I?"

"Gee, where have I heard that before?" Genis asked in a teasing voice. "It sounds a lot like what Raine says to you, doesn't it?"

"Oh, don't try to bring anything up, Genis," Lloyd warned him in a playful threatening tone. "Anyway, how are they treating you at the ranch?"

"Oh, the other people that have been captured like me are very kind. Apart from being under the constant watch of the Desians, it's surprisingly pleasant around here."

"Still, I don't like the idea of you being trapped in here. There must be something I can do to get you out of here."

"Lloyd, what are you saying?!" Genis asked the teen with complete shock written all over his face at what he just heard. "How could you even suggest something like that? You're talking about infiltrating a human ranch run by Desians here! It'll be complete suicide for you to even consider attempting a rescue!"

"I know that, but I can't just sit around on my tail and do nothing about it now that I know something about it!" Lloyd retorted without noticing figurative play on words with the word "tail." "I've got to do something to get her out of here. If there's anybody who doesn't deserve to be in there, it'll have to be Marble."

"I thank you for your concern for me, Lloyd," Marble thanked him with a small smile. "However, I don't want you to put yourself in any unnecessary trouble."

"No, I'm not going to just stand here and do nothing!" the teen insisted, despite his best friend making facial protests next to him. "Besides, think about how worried everybody is about you back home. I don't care what anybody says; I'm going to get you out of here. It's best if I try to do it now while you don't have an Exsphere on you."

"You truly are an ambitious young man," she said with a sigh, although keeping the smile on her face. "However, I will be alright here. I can manage."

"But…!" he started to retort before his friend elbowed him in the ribs, thus effectively cutting his sentence off.

"I know how you feel, Lloyd," Genis said with sympathetic eyes, "but there's nothing that we can do to help her! This place is just too well guarded against people like us. Even if it weren't so heavily guarded, the Desians themselves would probably surround us in a heartbeat and kill us."

"I'm afraid that Genis is right, Lloyd," Marble agreed with the young elf. As she said that, though, she had a small glint in her eyes. It was almost as if she knew something that could help their situation that the two boys did not know. "The only way you could probably save me from here is if you were a wolf of sorts. They would surely have the strength to get me out of here and fend off the Desians at the same time."

Genis was about to ask her what she had meant by that strange and sudden remark, but was cut short when he heard an unfamiliar voice. This one was harsh and sounded quite bitter as it pronounced each word.

"Hey, what are you doing over there, you old hag?" the bitter voice rudely asked in a tone that sounded powerful and intimidating.

"The Desians!" Marble gasped as her face automatically turned into a stoic one. "You two must go now. I'll be fine, but you two must leave!"

"She's right, Lloyd," Genis agreed with her as he began to crawl back into the protective coverings of the tall grass next to them. "We have to get out of here now!"

With a small moment of hesitation, Lloyd balled up his fists in frustration as he began to back away from the fence and towards the grass.

"I _will_ get you out of here, Marble!" he promised her as he hid himself in the tall grass.

"I know you will," she whispered in a soft tone that nobody except herself heard it.

"Old hag!" the same harsh voice called out again. "Didn't you hear me ask you something? What are you doing over there by the fence by yourself?"

Turning around so as to not raise anymore suspicion on herself, she faced the Desian, who was clad in a red cloth underneath his metal body armor consisting of gauntlets, battle boots, and helmet. In his hand right hand was a brown leather whip that was folded into a neat circle, but was threatening to unfurl itself as he was shaking it at his side in a menacing way.

"I'm sorry," she apologized with the stoic face that hid what she was doing just moments ago. "I was just trying to familiarize myself with the forest outside of the ranch. I'm afraid that I don't know much about this area."

"That's no excuse for wandering off to a place where we can't see you!" the Desian chastised her, apparently not caring about what she even had to say in her defense. "We brought you humans to these ranches in order to invoke discipline on you all. Wandering around inside the ranch is the exact opposite."

"I'm sorry," she apologized again. However, she did not get a chance to say anything more because another Desian came up next to the one already talking to her.

"What's going on here?" the new Desian asked the other in the same tone of voice as the first. "What's the holdup?"

"This human here decided to wander off from the pack," the first one replied. "I was just trying to teach her how things work around here."

"Really?" the second one asked with a hint of sick amusement in his voice. "Well, as much as I would like to give her my version of teaching her the right way to act around here, I'm afraid I have other business to attend to. I was only sent to tell you to find the new prisoner and to bring her to the captain. Apparently, our nice little 'gift' to her has been prepared and is awaiting her."

"Ah, so it's time for her to become a host then, isn't it?"

_Gift? Host?_ Lloyd thought as he overheard the conversation while dodging the cameras and hiding behind bushes just to get back to the main path. _They're not talking about putting an Exsphere on her, are they?_

"Yes. The captain wants you to bring her immediately."

"Yes, sir!" the first Desian said as the clinking of the metal armor from the second one was moving away. "It seems as though you were spared punishment this time. Unless you want to suffer punishment, you will follow me without any wandering. Is that clear?"

By the time Lloyd and Genis had finally made it out of the cameras' range of view, they could no longer hear the conversation. However, Lloyd was really worried about Marble and stopped in his tracks. Genis, who had almost made it to the main road, noticed that his best friend was no longer following him and stopped. Turning around, he saw the teen's back towards him and immediately knew what he was planning on doing.

"Lloyd, don't think about it!" Genis pleaded with him as he ran back to his side. "It's too dangerous for all of us. If they catch you, then you're as good as dead."

"Who said anything about them catching me?" Lloyd asked rhetorically. "I'm planning on giving them the sneak attack. I'd rather see myself get caught by them than to have them put an Exsphere on her!"

"Lloyd…," the elf mumbled as he heard the determination in his best friend's voice.

"Don't try to stop me, Genis," the teen warned him. "I've got my mind set on this and I'll do anything I have to do to get her out of there!"

"I know," he replied with a sigh as he seemed to be contemplating something in his mind. "That's why…, that's why I'm going to help you get Marble out of there!"

"Wha…!? A-are you sure about this? I mean, you're the one who was talking about how dangerous what I'm about to do was."

"And I still think the same thing. But don't forget: Marble's also my friend, too. If you're going to try and get her out of the ranch, then I think it's only fair that I try to do my part to help you out with that."

"Genis…, thanks a lot."

"No problem, Lloyd. After all, that's what friends are for, right?"

"Heh, trying to steal my words, are you? Anyway, now that I know we're all on the same page here, let's hurry up and think of a way to get her out of that place right now!"


	9. Saving Marble

**Chapter 8: Saving Marble  
**

"Hey, what's going on here?!" the booming voice of the first Desian was heard from all the way where Genis and Lloyd were standing. "Why have all you filthy humans blocked the entrance to the building with all the cargo here? Do you think that we Desians would like to see something like this? I sure as heck don't! Hurry up and clean this mess up before I take out my aggression on all of you!"

After a moment of relative silence, the two boys figured that the Desian was impatiently waiting for whatever blockage that they could not see to be cleared. That and probably keeping most of his attention on Marble to make sure that she did not try to sneak away from him.

"Well, it sounds as though we got some extra time on our hands to do whatever we got to do," Genis said as he was deep in thought. "I doubt it's going to be much, though. If we're going to have to get Marble out of there, we're going to have to do it quickly before they take her inside. I think we can handle it if she's still outside, but once she's brought into the ranch building, it'll be too late."

"I know," Lloyd agreed with his friend as he seemed to be scoping out the area surrounding the ranch. "We can't do anything, though, if we can't even see what's going on in there. We need to find some higher ground where we can see inside. We need to be able to plan our move."

"I think I know just the spot," the elf replied as started to head towards the right side of the ranch. "Follow me."

Just as he did earlier when he went to visit Marble, Lloyd followed Genis to wherever it was he was leading him. He noticed, however, that this path required no running and dodging of cameras because a line of bushes were growing together, conveniently blocking the view of the cameras and allowing the two of them safe passage without worry.

"Where are we going?" the teen asked as they approached a cliff side that was towering over the side of the ranch.

"There's a spot on this cliff where we can climb," the elf explained. "It's a great place for us to scope out what's going on inside. I stumbled upon it on my first time here. None of the cameras can look up that far and none were installed around that area, so we're safe from the security."

"That's good to know. So we just need to climb up this cliff and find some stable footing where we're able to see inside, right?"

"That's right. We better hurry, though, if we want to get Marble out of there. I'm not sure how much time we have left. They could be almost done moving the cargo boxes by now."

"Then stop talking and start climbing!"

Without another word, Lloyd went right past his best friend and started climbing the cliff. It was harder than he first thought because there were not as many footholds and places to place his hands as he thought there were. He managed though and managed to find a suitable area where he could easily see into the ranch and not fall off at the same time. Genis came onto the footing just a couple of seconds later.

"You were right," Lloyd said as he started to examine what was going on inside the ranch. "I can see almost everything that's going on inside there."

"Well, do you see Marble?" Genis asked as he was unable to do a successful search due to his position on the cliff.

"Yeah, she's with that Desian from earlier," he confirmed as he saw the woman standing there and nervously fidgeting with her hands behind her back.

"And what about all of the cargo that they said was blocking the way earlier? How does it look?"

"I'm not sure, I can't really see it, but I would guess that they're almost done moving it. The Desian doesn't seem to be as impatient as he sounded earlier."

"Then we better hurry up and come up with a plan while we still can. What do you think would be the best idea here?"

For a couple of moments, the two boys were silently trying to come up with a plan that would not only work but would also pose less of a risk of them getting caught. All the while, they were watching the Desian and Marble to make sure that they did not make their way into the building yet.

"Maybe this will work," Lloyd said as he broke the thoughtful silence between the two of them. "You are going to create a long range distraction from all the way over here in order to get that guard's attention. That's when you go ahead and hide yourself from their view while I cause the initial distraction. They'll more or less likely open the door so they can try and get me. That's when I'll go in and save Marble, provided that they're not so level headed during something like this that they first decide to take her inside."

"I suppose that's the only thing we can do," Genis replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "I don't really have a plan that sounds better than that. Just make sure that you don't get yourself caught by them."

"Don't worry about that," the teen assured him. "I'm going to jump across to the top of the front doors and take out the cameras that are up there before doing anything. They'll probably see me doing it and start pouring out of the doors, so don't move from here until its safe."

"Like I would even consider putting myself in that kind of danger," the elf replied sarcastically. "Just make sure that you're really careful and know what you're doing. I'll try to help you with my magic while you're…"

"Don't do that. If one of them manages to track where your magic came from, then you're as good as dead. It's not that I don't want your help. I just want to make sure that you're safe. You worry about me, so it's only fair that I should be worrying about you, right?"

"I suppose you're right. Well then, are you ready to start the plan?"

"As ready as I'll ever be. Let's go ahead and start with… Wait a minute. I see something happening down there."

As Lloyd squint his eyes in an attempt to get a better look, he saw another Desian poking his body out of a window that was just above where Marble and the first Desian were standing.

"What is it?" Genis asked. "What do you see?"

"I'm not sure," Lloyd said as he saw the Desian jump out of the window and gracefully land right in front of the two people. "I can say, though, that this Desian seems to like to make a crazy entrance. Anyway, I don't think that now is a good time for our distraction-rescue plan. Let's lay low for a while and see what's going on before we make our move."

"I see these inferior humans want to impede us from finishing our work," the voice of the new Desian, a female's, said with disdain clear in her tone.

"I'm sorry about that, captain," the first Desian apologized, immediately losing his previously bitter tone that he used on Marble and speaking in a way one would to their superior. "If I had known that they were going to be causing all this commotion, I would have picked up our host much earlier."

"It matters not anymore," the female replied, waving it off with a small wave of her hand as the old woman began to fidget around with her hands even more. "What matters to me is that you at least attempted to bring her to me. Anyway, I have the Exsphere for the human right here with me."

As she said that, the female Desian pulled out from her uniform pocket a small round object that was of the same shape and size as the Exsphere that Lloyd was wearing. However, the one she had gave off an orange glow instead of a silvery white sheen and looked to have more of a solid shape instead of a misty outline.

"She has the Exsphere on her!" Lloyd exclaimed silently. "They're going to put it on her!"

"Is now a good time to start with our plan?" Genis asked, fully knowing what the answer was going to be before he even voiced the question.

"Yes! Do it now!" the teen insisted as he took out his two swords from their scabbards and readied himself for his part of the plan.

"Alright then, one Fireball barrage special, coming up!" the elf exclaimed as the familiar orange-red circle appeared on the ground around him. "Just a couple of seconds and we'll be good to go!"

"Now show me your hand, inferior human," the female Desian demanded in a fake sweet voice. "Do not try to resist. This is going to be quick and painless. You won't even notice the difference once we put this Exsphere…"

Suddenly, a bunch of fireballs came up to the two Desians that were standing next to Marble. Both of them were struck by the sudden barrage and were caught off-guard, screaming in pain as they fell onto their knees and gained the attention of the humans working nearby. Amazingly, none of them hit Marble or the other prisoners that were nearby and still clearing the doorway of cargo.

"Another perfect hit!" Genis boasted as he sported a huge grin. "It must be my lucky day! Now hurry up and take out those cameras before they realize what's going on and call for backup."

"Got it," Lloyd replied with a cocky half-grin. "Make sure you hide yourself now before things get really hectic."

"And you be careful, too!" the half elf warned as he started to quickly make his way down the cliff and away from any open spots.

"What the heck was that?!" the male Desian exclaimed as he was on the ground nursing the burns he had suffered from the attack. "Where did it come from?"

"Up there!" the female shouted as she pointed at the top of the fences. "I bet it was that boy who did that!"

"Who does that brat think he is?"

"He's demolishing our security cameras!" she noticed as she began to follow suit. "How dare he?! Sound the alarm!"

As all the commotion being caused by the two Desians ensued, Lloyd was busy doing what the female noticed him doing, destroying the cameras that were hanging off the edge of the fence with his swords as he ran passed them. His left sword took care of the ones resting on the sides of the concrete posts while his other took care of the ones in front of him before they even had a chance to capture his running form.

By the time he had reached the top of the metal doors, he noticed that there were a few smoldering bits ahead of him. Taking a wild guess as to what happened, he stole a quick glance towards the path that lead back to the main road. Sure enough, Genis was on it with his kendama at the ready and sporting a smile. Apparently, he threw a Fireball spell at the other cameras that Lloyd had not managed to get to yet. With a quick thumbs-up signal, he turned around and ran down the path away from the soon-to-be trouble at the ranch.

_Thanks for the help, buddy_, he thought as he hopped off to the outside of the fence and turned around at the same time, thus effectively slashing away at the last two cameras that stood on both sides of the door and giving him total freedom to move around without fear of being video graphically caught. _That's going to give me a lot more moving space for what I'm going to do._

"He's hopped off the fence!" the female Desian shouted as the sound of metal reached Lloyd's ears. "Hurry up and open the gates! We can't afford to lose sight of him now that he's destroyed our cameras!"

_Sounds like its time to get the real show started_, he mentally chuckled as he quickly sheathed his swords back into his belt scabbards. Then with the same amount of swiftness, he unclasped the belt with ease and threw it off towards where the cliff began to dip downwards into the forest below. He threw it with such force that it never touched the ground and disappeared through the tops of the forest trees.

Just as the doors started to open, Lloyd made a mad dash towards the bushes in the direction of the cliff that he and Genis used earlier to get a better look inside. Just as he had took cover within the leaves and branches, a flood of Desians started to storm the area. They were too distracted trying to scope out the immediate area surrounding the ranch and awaiting their captain's orders that they failed to noticed a brief flash take place inside the bushes. They probably would not have noticed anyway, though, for the sun was out and made it near darn impossible to see.

"It seems as though the boy has already run off, ma'am!" one of the Desians reported to the female. "We don't see him anywhere."

"Then hurry up and start searching for him!" she ordered everybody in a loud voice. "I've already have someone relaying what has happened to Lord Forcystus. He knows what's going on. I want you to find that boy and bring him back so he can face judgment by his hand. If need be, kill him only when he resists. Make sure you look everywhere in the forest and… Wait a moment."

Suddenly, whatever chatter that was occurring during this time between the Desians stopped as they tried to figure out what had made their captain suddenly stop at mid-sentence.

"What is it, ma'am?" one of them asked.

"That bush…," she mumbled softly as she saw a few of its branches moving unnaturally, for there was no breeze of any sorts as of now. "Everyone, surround it!" she commanded with a smile etched into her voice. "I believe that we have found who we're looking for."

Upon her command, heavy metal footsteps were quickly moving around the bushes. Many of them had their weapons prepared for a possible oncoming skirmish that might ensue.

"Come on out, you inferior human," the female said, not wasting any time and totally meaning business. "It's time to face your punishment for not only defiling our property but also for attacking a Desian. We can either do this the easy way or the hard way."

For a moment, nobody said a word as they waited for something to happen. Then, they all heard a small noise coming from inside and immediately prepared their weapons for whatever was coming.

Suddenly, without warning, a large gray blur darted out of the bushes and pounced on the Desian that was right in its path. A second later, a scream was heard along with the sound of cloth being ripped. Everything happened so fast, nobody could even react. In fact, some of them started to run back into the base where they could find shelter from this unknown and insanely agile assailant.

"Stand your ground, men!" the woman commanded as she turned to focus her attention at the thing that dared to attack.

Upon looking at whatever it was she was supposed to be seeing, she noticed that the thing that attacked them was not who they were looking for. In fact, it was nothing more than a mere wolf; a wolf of a larger size than the regular forest wolves that roamed around. It was standing in front of the attacked Desian, clothes shredded and a small puddle of blood forming on the ground, staining the earth a crimson red. Its front paws were bloody from the rendering of flesh with its claws and its teeth were bared in a menacing fashion, showing its unusual whiteness to everyone.

"Wha-what is this…this _mongrel_ doing here?!" the woman shouted as she stammered in shock and actually took a step back in surprise. "How dare it attack one of us?!"

_They don't even know that its me_, the wolf, who was actually Lloyd, thought as he kept his gaze on the woman along with his ferocious look. _That's good. Now all I have to do is save Marble while everybody is still shocked at what's going on_.

"Everyone, forget about the inferior human for now!" she barked out at the remaining Desians that have not already ran back into the base. "Focus your attention on this damn pup! Do not let it leave here alive!"

_Do they honestly think that they can stop me from doing what I came here to do_? he mentally sighed as the Desians started to surround him. _I guess I'll just have to take care of them before I rescue her_.

"Attack!!!"

In less than a second, whips, swords, and all other types of weapons started to fly around. Lloyd took advantage of his smaller form as a wolf and easily dodged their attacks. He then squeezed through the small openings between the Desians' legs and out of the pincer circle they had created. In the process, most of them became confused and ended up whipping, slicing, or killing each other. Overall, the entire scene was one chaotic mess and Lloyd did not have to do much of the fighting. After all, it was already being done for him by the stupid people in front of him.

_Pitiful_, he mentally sighed as he started running through the still open doors of the ranch. _Anyway, I better hurry and get Marble out of here while time's still on my side Who knows when those idiots will figure out that I'm not there anymore_?

"Everyone, stop attacking each other!!!" he heard the woman shout angrily over the noise of battle. "The damn wolf is now in the ranch! Get him before he causes more damage!"

"I'm over here," Lloyd's ears heard Marble's voice over all of the other chaos direct him from behind a pile of metal crates. Running over to it while trying to avoid hitting the other prisoners that were running around in a frightened frenzy, he saw the old woman crouched down and taking cover from all the chaos.

Without wasting any time, Lloyd indicated with his head for her to get onto his back. Without hesitation, Marble quickly did just that and held on tightly to his fur. When she did this, he noticed that she had something gripped in her right hand. However, now was not the time to be wondering what it was. Instead, he concentrated on trying to find a different means of getting out of the ranch. After all, the Desians that were outside have now started to storm back in, completely blocking the entrance. Now feeling a bit scared, he frantically scanned his surroundings for another way of escape.

"The crates!" Marble quickly whispered into Lloyd's ear as she noticed his franticness. "Use the crates over there to jump over the fence and down the cliff!"

Looking over to see what she meant, he noticed that most of the crates were piled up alongside the fence. Conveniently, the managed to make a crude-looking set of stairs that they could use as another means of escape.

"The old woman!" the female Desian shouted as she was leading her small army towards their location with her leather whip in hand. "That mongrel is trying to take that old woman with her! Stop them now! Don't let them get away!"

It was already too late, though, as Lloyd was climbing up the crates and had reached the top of the fence. A second later, he jumped off it and onto the area where they could not see them for the moment. For a very brief second, he noticed that this was close to the same spot where he and Genis first met Marble that day.

From there, he quickly and fearlessly jumped off the cliff and into the sea of trees with Marble tightly hugging his back so as to not fall off before any of the Desians were able to get their eyes on them again. And with that, Lloyd had managed to escape the Iselian Human Ranch with his friend, Marble, riding on his back.


End file.
